2012 was truly the end of an era for the Bears. Ever since 2001, when Urlacher stepped onto the field with Roosevelt Colvin and Warrick Holdman, it's pretty much been a guarantee that the Bears would be in the discussion for the best linebacking corps in the NFL. All of that went out the window when Brian Urlacher's knee crumpled into a heap in Minnesota last year. The guy that came back, no matter what we tried to tell ourselves, just wasn't the same, and now he's gone. Next year Lance Briggs will line up on opening day with two new partners for the first time in his career, be it DJ Williams and James Anderson or whomever the team picks up in this year's draft. While they may turn out to be a quality unit, and there's every reason to believe they will be, the days when the Bears could count on any play run to the Urlacher/Briggs side of the field dying a hopeless death are gone.
#55 Lance Briggs: 16 games, 16 games started, 101 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2 INTs, 11 passes defensed, 2 FF, 2 TDs.
Lance Briggs finally got his contract extension (again) and responded with potentially his best season at age 32. He was dominant against both the run and the pass, finishing with a +12.1 rating from Pro Football Focus. His interception return for a TD against Dallas was one of the coolest damn things I've ever seen on a football field, and he followed it up a week later with another one. The question going forward is how well he will do without Urlacher next to him. Briggs played good football after Urlacher's injury this year, but his worst year came in 2009 after Urlacher went down. Hopefully Briggs is ready to play without a safety net, because the team needs him to continue to be dominant for at least a few more years.
#53 Nick Roach: 16 games, 14 games started, 65 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 4 passes defensed, 1 FF, 1 fumble recovery.
As much as I try to understand advanced baseball statistics, WAR always eludes my grasp. What the hell, really, is a replacement player? I can tell you what a replacement middle linebacker is, though. It's Nick Roach. He graded out at a +0.2 last year, practically the dictionary definition of an average middle linebacker. At strong side he was slightly worse. He could have had the starting MLB job next year, most likely, but the Bears were very wise not to give him the $3-4 million a year that Oakland did.
#54 Brian Urlacher: 12 games, 12 games started, 70 tackles, 1 INT, 7 passes defensed, 2 FF, 2 fumbles recovered.
Sigh. This one hurts. I'm not going to get into the controversy surrounding his departure, or any of his statements after leaving the team. I've discussed it already. On the field, however, there's no denying that Urlacher is a liability. He graded out with a -13.5 against the run, and he was a huge factor in the run defense's decline in the second half. Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick ran wild against him, as Urlacher was no longer capable of beating a mobile QB to the edge and pinning them in the backfield. He was still effective in pass defense, but played fewer snaps against the pass than he had in previous years, and he struggled to defend the deep seam route as he had in the past. It truly was time to move on.
#58 Geno Hayes: 15 games, 3 games started, 14 tackles, 1 pass defensed.
Geno signed with the Bears in order to get some meaningful reps and earn himself a chance to compete for a starting job with someone next year. He was pretty pedestrian when he did play, although he was a pretty valuable back up with his experience in the scheme and his versatility, but it was enough to get a contract from the Jaguars that the Bears weren't interested in matching. Good luck to you, Geno.
#52 Blake Costanzo: 14 games, 1 game started, 4 tackles.
Costanzo was the latest special teams ace and linebacker-in-name-only that Brad Biggs got all lathered up over, and he was certainly very good in that department. He actually graded out positively as both an OLB and an MLB in the limited reps that he got, but I don't think the team views him as anything more than a last-resort in that capacity, and they're probably right.
That's all for now. It seems like heresy to say this, but there's a good chance that the linebacking corps could be even better next year, even if it probably won't approach the consistent excellence of the last decade. You just can't replace the production a healthy Brian Urlacher gave you, but you can most likely improve on the production an injured one gave you with two younger, experienced players in DJ Williams and James Anderson.
Next time: Charles Tillman, how I love thee.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
2012 Bears Position Reviews: the Defensive Line
Ahh, good news. The Bears defensive line was undeniably the deepest and arguably the most productive unit (I say arguably because Charles Tillman is coming to punch my balls) on the team this year. The entire rotation contributed with seven different lineman getting to the quarterback. The Bears were consistently able to get good pressure on quarterbacks with just their front four, allowing the defense do run the zones they thrive in. In the end, the Bears finished 8th in the NFL with 41 sacks, with 38 coming from the defensive line. If there was a weakness, it was that the team finished just 14th in yards per carry allowed and struggled to contain the top-flight rushing attacks they faced in the second half of the season. A certain linebacker certainly contributed to the defense's struggles in that department, but it is still a place where there's room for improvement.
Defensive Ends:
#90 Julius Peppers: 16 games, 16 games started, 39 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 2 passes defensed, 1 FF, 1 fumble recovery.
On the surface, Julius had yet another stellar campaign as a Bear, finishing for the second straight year with at least 11 sacks. Behind the numbers he wasn't quite as dominant as he had been his previous two years in Chicago. Pro Football Focus had him at +9.9 for the season, a very good grade, but not the +21.7 he posted the year before. He wasn't quite able to take away an entire half of the field in the run game as he had done before, and he wasn't the relentless pass-rushing force he was before, with his sacks tending to come in bunches with some distance between.
That said, we knew this would happen. The Bears were never going to get THE Julius Peppers for the entire length of that contract. That's just the reality of free agency. The important thing is that, even as he struggled with injury this year, Julius was still a damn good defensive end. You'd take Julius Peppers in a "down" year over just about all but a handful of defensive ends in the NFL at their peak. He also managed to post similar line stats to his 2011 campaign despite taking nearly 100 fewer snaps at DE. You hope going forward that Shea McClellin can continue to develop behind him and that Corey Wootton can stay healthy, because the best bet for the Bears to continue to get production, if not the superhuman annihilation of opposing offenses he was known for before, from Julius for the remainder of his deal. Regardless, I love Julius Peppers.
#71 Israel Idonije: 16 games, 11 games started, 48 tackles, 7.5 sacks, 1 FF
You don't have to know much about me to know that I'm not exactly the kind of fan who thumps his chest and gets all teary-eyed over grit and hustle or to tout the merits of some kind of lunch pail player. The exception to this rule is Israel Idonije. Izzy's been with the Bears since 2004, and in that time he's played every spot on the line. Up until 2010 he was usually the third defensive tackle off the bench. Then he switched to a mostly full-time DE, and the result was an extremely productive season. He tailed off as a pass-rusher in the second-half of 2011, even though his run defense remained stout. You couldn't really blame the Bears for opting to get younger at the position with the addition of Shea McClellin, and the emergence of Corey Wootton was also a pleasant surprise. It appeared Izzy's days were numbered.
Izzy responded with a great season, however. He was tops among all Bears defensive lineman in tackles, had an even better year against the run, with a +7.4 grade in that category. He was benched midway through the season for Wootton, and took the demotion in stride, especially he spent plenty of time at DT after his demotion.
Right now Izzy is a free agent, and I understand that the Bears brought in Turk McBride and that Shea and Wootton will both play bigger roles next year. My heart still wants Izzy back on the team, however, because he's as easy a player to root for as there is, and because he's still a damn good football player.
#98 Corey Wootton: 16 games, 7 games started, 27 tackles, 7.0 sacks, 1 pass defensed, 2 FF
Up until this year it seemed the Corey Wootton would go down as a trivia answer for his only career sack being the death of Brett Favre, but then he managed to stay healthy for an entire season for the first time since his junior year of college. With his new-found health Wootton erupted with 7 sacks as a rotational DE, eventually moving into the starting role. His development was huge as it allowed the Bears to give much-needed rest to Julius Peppers and it kept the team from having to expand Shea McClellin's role too quickly. While Wootton struggled a bit against the run when he moved into the starting lineup, it seems only reasonable to suspect that he'll improve as he gets more experience.
#99 Shea McClellin: 14 games, 0 games started, 14 tackles, 2.5 sacks
I think Shea McClellin is a good football player, I really do. Although he finished with slightly below average rating from Pro Football Focus for the season, primarily due to being a complete non-entity against the run, he graded out positively as a pass-rushing specialist, with 22 hurries to go along with his 2.5 sacks. That was all the team really needed from him last year, and, as I said, the resurgence of Izzy and the emergence of Wootton meant Shea really didn't have to do much other than provide pressure on the quarterback on 3rd down. If Izzy's not coming back, and with Pepper being a year older, Shea will have to be a more complete player next year. Hopefully with a year of experience, some better health, and a full offseason, he'll be ready, but he's going to have to put up some big numbers to silence the critics.
#95 Cheta Ozougwu: 2 games, 0 games started, 3 tackles.
Awesome name. Otherwise nothing special. Probably won't make the roster next year.
Defensive Tackles:
#69 Henry Melton: 14 games, 14 games started, 44 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 2 FF
I really hope the Bears can work out a long-term deal with Melton, because he's truly something special. He finished the year as Pro Football Focus' 7th rated defensive tackle in the NFL, although he ranks even higher if you only count other 4-3 DTs. Considering that Henry was a runningback less than four years ago, and that he's only been a full-time DE for two, his rapid progress is nothing short of remarkable. Last year he burst onto the scene with two sacks in the opener against the Falcons but followed with a largely up-and-down season as a pass-rusher and he struggled often with being over-aggressive and exposed against traps, draws, and screens. This year he became a truly dominant pass-rusher week in and week out, and he developed into a fairly average run defender. The sky's the limit when you consider Henry's talent, however, so I'm willing to bet that the best is yet to come.
#92 Stephen Paea: 15 games, 14 games started, 24 tackles, 2.5 sacks
Stephen Paea started to show some flashes of being the dominant nose tackle that Lovie envisioned two years ago this year. Overall he graded out positively with a +1.7 grade on the season. He was, naturally, better against the run than the pass, but he still contributed in that department with 2.5 sacks, more than his predecessor, Spice Adams, managed in his four years as the Bear's primary nose tackle. Hopefully the Bears have found their main duo for years to come in Melton and Paea.
#93 Nate Collins: 9 games, 0 games started, 11 tackles, 1 pass defensed, 2 FF
Nate Collins was the line's second biggest surprise after Wootton, finishing the season with a stellar +4.9 rating from PFF in his time in the rotation. He has the flexibility to play either the nose or the three-technique, and he was one of the few Bears defensive linemen to grade out well against both the run and the pass. I'm glad the Bears managed to bring him back, as that leaves them with three young, talented, and still-developing players in their rotation.
#91 Amobi Okoye: 9 games, 0 games started, 12 tackles, 1.0 sack, 1 FF
Amobi served two stints with the Bears this year, as he was cut early in the season after Nate Collins beat him out, but returned to finish out the season after injuries to Melton and McClellin left the team in need of more depth. While he wasn't quite the impact player he was in 2011, he was still fairly solid for a third-string DT and I wouldn't be surprised if the Bears brought him back on board if he's still hanging around on waivers this summer.
#75 Matt Toeaiana: 3 games, 2 games started, 4 tackles
Toeiana was never really much more than a body. He was more effective than a post-injury Tommie Harris and the older, slower version of Spice Adams, but he was never really going to be the long-term solution at the nose. The team is currently waiting for him to get healthy enough that they can work out an injury settlement and then cut him.
That's all for now. Next time: Lance Briggs is still awesome, but Brian Urlacher is not.
Defensive Ends:
#90 Julius Peppers: 16 games, 16 games started, 39 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 2 passes defensed, 1 FF, 1 fumble recovery.
On the surface, Julius had yet another stellar campaign as a Bear, finishing for the second straight year with at least 11 sacks. Behind the numbers he wasn't quite as dominant as he had been his previous two years in Chicago. Pro Football Focus had him at +9.9 for the season, a very good grade, but not the +21.7 he posted the year before. He wasn't quite able to take away an entire half of the field in the run game as he had done before, and he wasn't the relentless pass-rushing force he was before, with his sacks tending to come in bunches with some distance between.
That said, we knew this would happen. The Bears were never going to get THE Julius Peppers for the entire length of that contract. That's just the reality of free agency. The important thing is that, even as he struggled with injury this year, Julius was still a damn good defensive end. You'd take Julius Peppers in a "down" year over just about all but a handful of defensive ends in the NFL at their peak. He also managed to post similar line stats to his 2011 campaign despite taking nearly 100 fewer snaps at DE. You hope going forward that Shea McClellin can continue to develop behind him and that Corey Wootton can stay healthy, because the best bet for the Bears to continue to get production, if not the superhuman annihilation of opposing offenses he was known for before, from Julius for the remainder of his deal. Regardless, I love Julius Peppers.
#71 Israel Idonije: 16 games, 11 games started, 48 tackles, 7.5 sacks, 1 FF
You don't have to know much about me to know that I'm not exactly the kind of fan who thumps his chest and gets all teary-eyed over grit and hustle or to tout the merits of some kind of lunch pail player. The exception to this rule is Israel Idonije. Izzy's been with the Bears since 2004, and in that time he's played every spot on the line. Up until 2010 he was usually the third defensive tackle off the bench. Then he switched to a mostly full-time DE, and the result was an extremely productive season. He tailed off as a pass-rusher in the second-half of 2011, even though his run defense remained stout. You couldn't really blame the Bears for opting to get younger at the position with the addition of Shea McClellin, and the emergence of Corey Wootton was also a pleasant surprise. It appeared Izzy's days were numbered.
Izzy responded with a great season, however. He was tops among all Bears defensive lineman in tackles, had an even better year against the run, with a +7.4 grade in that category. He was benched midway through the season for Wootton, and took the demotion in stride, especially he spent plenty of time at DT after his demotion.
Right now Izzy is a free agent, and I understand that the Bears brought in Turk McBride and that Shea and Wootton will both play bigger roles next year. My heart still wants Izzy back on the team, however, because he's as easy a player to root for as there is, and because he's still a damn good football player.
#98 Corey Wootton: 16 games, 7 games started, 27 tackles, 7.0 sacks, 1 pass defensed, 2 FF
Up until this year it seemed the Corey Wootton would go down as a trivia answer for his only career sack being the death of Brett Favre, but then he managed to stay healthy for an entire season for the first time since his junior year of college. With his new-found health Wootton erupted with 7 sacks as a rotational DE, eventually moving into the starting role. His development was huge as it allowed the Bears to give much-needed rest to Julius Peppers and it kept the team from having to expand Shea McClellin's role too quickly. While Wootton struggled a bit against the run when he moved into the starting lineup, it seems only reasonable to suspect that he'll improve as he gets more experience.
#99 Shea McClellin: 14 games, 0 games started, 14 tackles, 2.5 sacks
I think Shea McClellin is a good football player, I really do. Although he finished with slightly below average rating from Pro Football Focus for the season, primarily due to being a complete non-entity against the run, he graded out positively as a pass-rushing specialist, with 22 hurries to go along with his 2.5 sacks. That was all the team really needed from him last year, and, as I said, the resurgence of Izzy and the emergence of Wootton meant Shea really didn't have to do much other than provide pressure on the quarterback on 3rd down. If Izzy's not coming back, and with Pepper being a year older, Shea will have to be a more complete player next year. Hopefully with a year of experience, some better health, and a full offseason, he'll be ready, but he's going to have to put up some big numbers to silence the critics.
#95 Cheta Ozougwu: 2 games, 0 games started, 3 tackles.
Awesome name. Otherwise nothing special. Probably won't make the roster next year.
Defensive Tackles:
#69 Henry Melton: 14 games, 14 games started, 44 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 2 FF
I really hope the Bears can work out a long-term deal with Melton, because he's truly something special. He finished the year as Pro Football Focus' 7th rated defensive tackle in the NFL, although he ranks even higher if you only count other 4-3 DTs. Considering that Henry was a runningback less than four years ago, and that he's only been a full-time DE for two, his rapid progress is nothing short of remarkable. Last year he burst onto the scene with two sacks in the opener against the Falcons but followed with a largely up-and-down season as a pass-rusher and he struggled often with being over-aggressive and exposed against traps, draws, and screens. This year he became a truly dominant pass-rusher week in and week out, and he developed into a fairly average run defender. The sky's the limit when you consider Henry's talent, however, so I'm willing to bet that the best is yet to come.
#92 Stephen Paea: 15 games, 14 games started, 24 tackles, 2.5 sacks
Stephen Paea started to show some flashes of being the dominant nose tackle that Lovie envisioned two years ago this year. Overall he graded out positively with a +1.7 grade on the season. He was, naturally, better against the run than the pass, but he still contributed in that department with 2.5 sacks, more than his predecessor, Spice Adams, managed in his four years as the Bear's primary nose tackle. Hopefully the Bears have found their main duo for years to come in Melton and Paea.
#93 Nate Collins: 9 games, 0 games started, 11 tackles, 1 pass defensed, 2 FF
Nate Collins was the line's second biggest surprise after Wootton, finishing the season with a stellar +4.9 rating from PFF in his time in the rotation. He has the flexibility to play either the nose or the three-technique, and he was one of the few Bears defensive linemen to grade out well against both the run and the pass. I'm glad the Bears managed to bring him back, as that leaves them with three young, talented, and still-developing players in their rotation.
#91 Amobi Okoye: 9 games, 0 games started, 12 tackles, 1.0 sack, 1 FF
Amobi served two stints with the Bears this year, as he was cut early in the season after Nate Collins beat him out, but returned to finish out the season after injuries to Melton and McClellin left the team in need of more depth. While he wasn't quite the impact player he was in 2011, he was still fairly solid for a third-string DT and I wouldn't be surprised if the Bears brought him back on board if he's still hanging around on waivers this summer.
#75 Matt Toeaiana: 3 games, 2 games started, 4 tackles
Toeiana was never really much more than a body. He was more effective than a post-injury Tommie Harris and the older, slower version of Spice Adams, but he was never really going to be the long-term solution at the nose. The team is currently waiting for him to get healthy enough that they can work out an injury settlement and then cut him.
That's all for now. Next time: Lance Briggs is still awesome, but Brian Urlacher is not.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
2012 Bears Position Reviews: The Offensive Line
How hard is it to fix an offensive line? I ask this not in a sarcastic way, like "Jesus, how dumb are you people to not have fixed this yet?" but legitimately. The Bears problems on the offensive line go back many years, ever since the 2001 Bears were one of the league's best, and yet oldest, groups. Angelo, in his first go round at running a draft, took Marc Colombo in the first round in order to provide youthful talent to the unit. Colombo, to Angelo's credit, was a solid left tackle for several years...for the Cowboys, after he lost nearly all three years of his rookie contract with the Bears to a devastating knee injury.
The Colombo experience seemed to sour Angelo on investing premium draft picks on offensive linemen, and from 2003-2010 he drafted just one offensive lineman, Chris Williams, above the fourth round (in that time he spent one fourth round pick on Josh Beekman, and spent six seventh round and one sixth round pick on various projects, with only two middling "successes" in Lance Louis and J'Marcus Webb) before public fury forced his hand on picking Gabe Carimi.
With such a low investment of draft resources on the unit, Angelo had to find his answers in free agency. In a lot of ways, his rise and fall as a general manager had more to do with his declining success at signing free agent offensive linemen than his much-maligned misses on high draft picks. After Angelo completely overhauled the line in 2004-2005 with the additions of John Tait, Ruben Brown, Fred Miller, and Roberto Garza (and you can say what you want about Angelo or about Brown, Miller, and Garza's performance in their later years, these were great pickups), the Bears had a very effective run and pass-blocking unit that played a major part in the team's 2006 title run by clearing the way for Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson.
Unfortunately, if you are forced to rely on highly-paid free agent offensive linemen and you don't invest in providing depth behind them with valuable draft picks, you're in for a bad time once those veterans age out of effectiveness. In 2007 Miller and Brown utterly collapsed, and Olin Kreutz began his slow decline as well. Tait retired after 2008, leaving the Bears with a gap at left tackle they've spent four years struggling to fill.
As we know, Jerry whiffed with Chris Williams and later Gabe Carimi, leaving the success of the line again dependent on low-round projects and free agents. Jerry failed to duplicate his earlier success in this department, throwing away millions on has-beens like Orlando Paces and oh-no-fucking-way-will-he-ever-bes like Frank Omiyale. The result was a line that's ranked 31st, 32nd, and 30th overall in the last three years according to Pro Football Focus. Some will give Angelo credit for "getting good value" in finding seventh rounders like Louis and Webb who developed into passable starters, but this team suffered greatly as those two took their lumps, and the other three spots around them still sucked this year. Not to mention the fact that Webb didn't show enough even in his best year to stave off getting replaced on the blind side and Louis left in free agency.
So what does it take to fix this mess? Money, in the form of contracts handed out to Bushrod and Slauson, who are both on the right side of thirty and have plenty of proven experience, which wasn't the case for the worn-out Pace or the unproven Omiyale. It's also going to take a willingness to continually invest at least second day draft picks in the position on a continual basis, whether the team feels confident in their current batch of guys or not. Experience has shown that injury, inconsistency, and age will strike at any time. I still think they'd be best served, even with Bushrod and Slauson on board, to take an interior lineman in round one.
Now that I've spent six paragraphs without reviewing a single player, I'm going to try and keep this short and sweet:
Tackles:
#73 J'Marcus Webb: 16 games, 16 games started, 7 sacks allowed.
I really don't mean to sell J'Marcus short. He made huge strides last season, and he's still young and talented enough to be a good tackle. I'm glad that Phil Emery understands that potential can only buy you so much time, and that the team is still better served throwing a proven, reliable left tackle on Jay's blindside and letting Webb have the chance to take his talent and his developing skills as a run blocker over to the right side, where his still-too-frequent mental lapses in pass protection will hopefully be less devastating. If not? Too bad. I doubt anyone will shed a tear and say the Bears didn't do everything they could for J'Marcus.
#72 Gabe Carimi: 16 games, 14 games started, 6.5 sacks allowed.
To be clear, Gabe doesn't necessarily have to be the next Chris Williams. He's an absolutely elite run-blocker, ranking 9th among all offensive tackles in the NFL according to PFF. There's reason to believe he can still be a productive player inside at guard (where his +4.2 rating in four games would have made him a top 15 guard in the NFL if he managed to do it for a full season), or even at tackle if he can find a way to be something less than a complete waste of space in pass-blocking. There are those who believe his recovery from the knee injury wasn't complete, and that the resulting lack of speed and agility crippled him in pass-blocking. I hope they're right. It would be a terrible waste if he can't become a valuable contributor somewhere, but I also hope the Bears aren't banking on him starting. As of right now I'm not really sold on a competition between Carimi and James Brown at guard being a good thing. The team needs to add one more guard in the draft so the team isn't forced to rely on either of those two panning out as a quality starter.
#79 Jon Scott: 12 games, 7 games started, 1 sack allowed.
Scott is about the very definition of a swing tackle. He can play left or right tackle and he won't get utterly embarrassed in pass protection. He'll give up hurries and hits but not necessarily sacks. He also gets zero push in the run game. He was an adequate band-aid last year, and I'm not upset that the Bears re-signed him, so long as they don't start him for any reason other than injury.
#74 Chris Williams: 3 games, 0 games started, 1 sack allowed.
He was bad, and it's over. I've wasted too many lines on him already. Sigh.
Guards:
#60 Lance Louis: 11 games, 11 games started, 2.5 sacks allowed.
Lance Louis is a very good pass-protecting guard. He's also a very bad run-blocking guard. On the Bears offense, you'll take the good pass-blocking every time. If Lance had never gotten hurt, I think he'd have gotten himself an extension and would still be a Bear. With the injury, however, he was never going to get what he wanted from the team. In the end Phil managed to grab a player of similar age with more experience, who is an even better pass blocker, and is a slightly less-bad run-blocker to replace Lance, one who isn't coming off a knee injury (and doesn't have a history of missing games with injury every year of his career, as Lance has). I kind of love you, Phil Emery. I wish Lance well in Miami, though.
#67 Chris Spencer: 10 games, 5 games started, 1.5 sacks allowed.
After a very good 2011 that led both the Bears and myself to think he was somehow just a guy who found his untapped potential after six season, Spencer regressed last year and lost his job early, and never really re-claimed it despite numerous opportunities. While he allowed just one sack, he allowed frequent hits, hurries, and disruptions, and his shoddy run-blocking performance was more in line with the rest of his career than his 2011 anomaly. No one will shed tears over his departure.
#62 Chilo Rachal: 9 games, 8 games started, 2.0 sacks allowed.
I was pretty enthused about the Chilo Rachal signing. He was always a dominant run-blocker in San Francisco, grading out as the top run-blocking guard in all of football in 2010 according to PFF, and his mental lapses in pass protection were often overrated by 49ers fans. In Chicago, however, he was an unmitigated disaster. He was actually worse as a run-blocker than Spencer, his mental-lapses in pass protection became complete systemic collapses, and he committed seven goddamn penalties in just eight starts, and Mike Tice fucking complemented him on his personal foul because he gave the team "an edge." Just not, like, an edge in competition against the opposing defense. He quit in a bitch fit after the 49ers game and will probably never take a snap in the NFL again.
#78 James Brown: 5 games, 3 games started, 3.0 sacks allowed.
*Don't Make James Brown Joke* *Don't Make James Brown Joke*...James Brown may have soul, but as a guard in 2012, he was super bad. Goddammit. Actually, after a horrible debut, Brown was somewhat less than awful in his last two starts, but there's nothing to give any evidence that he's got true potential. Again, I hope Emery has a plan to draft one more guard, because a James Brown/Carimi competition at guard could just be two wrongs failing to make a right.
#70 Edwin Williams: 6 games, 2 games started, 0.0 sacks allowed.
Edwin Williams has allowed just 1 sack in 14 career starts at guard. The reason he hasn't started every single game possible for the Bears is because he doesn't do much else besides provide adequate pass protection. He's not a dominant pass-blocker, as he allows plenty of pressure whether it gets home or not, and he's never been much of anything in the run game. This is why many people think his future is inside at center, where he played in college, and I'd certainly like to see him get a shot, since his lack of power and his smaller frame would be more suited in that role. Also because Roberto Garza is shitty.
#63 Roberto Garza: 16 games, 16 games started, 5.0 sacks allowed.
No offense, Roberto. You seem like a nice guy, and for a long stretch there you were a very, very good guard. That stretch ended in 2008. Since then you were a mediocre guard for two years, and a mediocre center for a year after that. Jerry Angelo gave you a f*&king contract extension for this. Now you're just plain bad. Garza allowed five sacks, a fairly high total for a center, and was still somehow a better pass blocker than a run blocker, mostly because he was utterly useless in that department. He can still get out there on pulls and screens, but he's otherwise beaten up and tossed in the trash by any half-decent nose guard. He also committed four false starts this year. My God. Roberto Garza is Olin Kreutz. We just can't get rid of that sonofabitch.
That's all for now. After 44 sacks allowed last year, and 149 allowed since 2010, the Bears have finally made it a real priority to upgrade this dumpster fire of a unit. Marc Trestman's scheme will certainly help, but we've heard that story before. The important thing is that Emery has shown a willingness to spend money on protecting his quarterback, and I hope he's willing to invest draft picks on it as well. We can only hope Bushrod, Slauson, and the hopeful rookie-to-be-named-later can lead to the first truly productive offensive line the Bears have had since Superbowl 41.
The Colombo experience seemed to sour Angelo on investing premium draft picks on offensive linemen, and from 2003-2010 he drafted just one offensive lineman, Chris Williams, above the fourth round (in that time he spent one fourth round pick on Josh Beekman, and spent six seventh round and one sixth round pick on various projects, with only two middling "successes" in Lance Louis and J'Marcus Webb) before public fury forced his hand on picking Gabe Carimi.
With such a low investment of draft resources on the unit, Angelo had to find his answers in free agency. In a lot of ways, his rise and fall as a general manager had more to do with his declining success at signing free agent offensive linemen than his much-maligned misses on high draft picks. After Angelo completely overhauled the line in 2004-2005 with the additions of John Tait, Ruben Brown, Fred Miller, and Roberto Garza (and you can say what you want about Angelo or about Brown, Miller, and Garza's performance in their later years, these were great pickups), the Bears had a very effective run and pass-blocking unit that played a major part in the team's 2006 title run by clearing the way for Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson.
Unfortunately, if you are forced to rely on highly-paid free agent offensive linemen and you don't invest in providing depth behind them with valuable draft picks, you're in for a bad time once those veterans age out of effectiveness. In 2007 Miller and Brown utterly collapsed, and Olin Kreutz began his slow decline as well. Tait retired after 2008, leaving the Bears with a gap at left tackle they've spent four years struggling to fill.
As we know, Jerry whiffed with Chris Williams and later Gabe Carimi, leaving the success of the line again dependent on low-round projects and free agents. Jerry failed to duplicate his earlier success in this department, throwing away millions on has-beens like Orlando Paces and oh-no-fucking-way-will-he-ever-bes like Frank Omiyale. The result was a line that's ranked 31st, 32nd, and 30th overall in the last three years according to Pro Football Focus. Some will give Angelo credit for "getting good value" in finding seventh rounders like Louis and Webb who developed into passable starters, but this team suffered greatly as those two took their lumps, and the other three spots around them still sucked this year. Not to mention the fact that Webb didn't show enough even in his best year to stave off getting replaced on the blind side and Louis left in free agency.
So what does it take to fix this mess? Money, in the form of contracts handed out to Bushrod and Slauson, who are both on the right side of thirty and have plenty of proven experience, which wasn't the case for the worn-out Pace or the unproven Omiyale. It's also going to take a willingness to continually invest at least second day draft picks in the position on a continual basis, whether the team feels confident in their current batch of guys or not. Experience has shown that injury, inconsistency, and age will strike at any time. I still think they'd be best served, even with Bushrod and Slauson on board, to take an interior lineman in round one.
Now that I've spent six paragraphs without reviewing a single player, I'm going to try and keep this short and sweet:
Tackles:
#73 J'Marcus Webb: 16 games, 16 games started, 7 sacks allowed.
I really don't mean to sell J'Marcus short. He made huge strides last season, and he's still young and talented enough to be a good tackle. I'm glad that Phil Emery understands that potential can only buy you so much time, and that the team is still better served throwing a proven, reliable left tackle on Jay's blindside and letting Webb have the chance to take his talent and his developing skills as a run blocker over to the right side, where his still-too-frequent mental lapses in pass protection will hopefully be less devastating. If not? Too bad. I doubt anyone will shed a tear and say the Bears didn't do everything they could for J'Marcus.
#72 Gabe Carimi: 16 games, 14 games started, 6.5 sacks allowed.
To be clear, Gabe doesn't necessarily have to be the next Chris Williams. He's an absolutely elite run-blocker, ranking 9th among all offensive tackles in the NFL according to PFF. There's reason to believe he can still be a productive player inside at guard (where his +4.2 rating in four games would have made him a top 15 guard in the NFL if he managed to do it for a full season), or even at tackle if he can find a way to be something less than a complete waste of space in pass-blocking. There are those who believe his recovery from the knee injury wasn't complete, and that the resulting lack of speed and agility crippled him in pass-blocking. I hope they're right. It would be a terrible waste if he can't become a valuable contributor somewhere, but I also hope the Bears aren't banking on him starting. As of right now I'm not really sold on a competition between Carimi and James Brown at guard being a good thing. The team needs to add one more guard in the draft so the team isn't forced to rely on either of those two panning out as a quality starter.
#79 Jon Scott: 12 games, 7 games started, 1 sack allowed.
Scott is about the very definition of a swing tackle. He can play left or right tackle and he won't get utterly embarrassed in pass protection. He'll give up hurries and hits but not necessarily sacks. He also gets zero push in the run game. He was an adequate band-aid last year, and I'm not upset that the Bears re-signed him, so long as they don't start him for any reason other than injury.
#74 Chris Williams: 3 games, 0 games started, 1 sack allowed.
He was bad, and it's over. I've wasted too many lines on him already. Sigh.
Guards:
#60 Lance Louis: 11 games, 11 games started, 2.5 sacks allowed.
Lance Louis is a very good pass-protecting guard. He's also a very bad run-blocking guard. On the Bears offense, you'll take the good pass-blocking every time. If Lance had never gotten hurt, I think he'd have gotten himself an extension and would still be a Bear. With the injury, however, he was never going to get what he wanted from the team. In the end Phil managed to grab a player of similar age with more experience, who is an even better pass blocker, and is a slightly less-bad run-blocker to replace Lance, one who isn't coming off a knee injury (and doesn't have a history of missing games with injury every year of his career, as Lance has). I kind of love you, Phil Emery. I wish Lance well in Miami, though.
#67 Chris Spencer: 10 games, 5 games started, 1.5 sacks allowed.
After a very good 2011 that led both the Bears and myself to think he was somehow just a guy who found his untapped potential after six season, Spencer regressed last year and lost his job early, and never really re-claimed it despite numerous opportunities. While he allowed just one sack, he allowed frequent hits, hurries, and disruptions, and his shoddy run-blocking performance was more in line with the rest of his career than his 2011 anomaly. No one will shed tears over his departure.
#62 Chilo Rachal: 9 games, 8 games started, 2.0 sacks allowed.
I was pretty enthused about the Chilo Rachal signing. He was always a dominant run-blocker in San Francisco, grading out as the top run-blocking guard in all of football in 2010 according to PFF, and his mental lapses in pass protection were often overrated by 49ers fans. In Chicago, however, he was an unmitigated disaster. He was actually worse as a run-blocker than Spencer, his mental-lapses in pass protection became complete systemic collapses, and he committed seven goddamn penalties in just eight starts, and Mike Tice fucking complemented him on his personal foul because he gave the team "an edge." Just not, like, an edge in competition against the opposing defense. He quit in a bitch fit after the 49ers game and will probably never take a snap in the NFL again.
#78 James Brown: 5 games, 3 games started, 3.0 sacks allowed.
*Don't Make James Brown Joke* *Don't Make James Brown Joke*...James Brown may have soul, but as a guard in 2012, he was super bad. Goddammit. Actually, after a horrible debut, Brown was somewhat less than awful in his last two starts, but there's nothing to give any evidence that he's got true potential. Again, I hope Emery has a plan to draft one more guard, because a James Brown/Carimi competition at guard could just be two wrongs failing to make a right.
#70 Edwin Williams: 6 games, 2 games started, 0.0 sacks allowed.
Edwin Williams has allowed just 1 sack in 14 career starts at guard. The reason he hasn't started every single game possible for the Bears is because he doesn't do much else besides provide adequate pass protection. He's not a dominant pass-blocker, as he allows plenty of pressure whether it gets home or not, and he's never been much of anything in the run game. This is why many people think his future is inside at center, where he played in college, and I'd certainly like to see him get a shot, since his lack of power and his smaller frame would be more suited in that role. Also because Roberto Garza is shitty.
#63 Roberto Garza: 16 games, 16 games started, 5.0 sacks allowed.
No offense, Roberto. You seem like a nice guy, and for a long stretch there you were a very, very good guard. That stretch ended in 2008. Since then you were a mediocre guard for two years, and a mediocre center for a year after that. Jerry Angelo gave you a f*&king contract extension for this. Now you're just plain bad. Garza allowed five sacks, a fairly high total for a center, and was still somehow a better pass blocker than a run blocker, mostly because he was utterly useless in that department. He can still get out there on pulls and screens, but he's otherwise beaten up and tossed in the trash by any half-decent nose guard. He also committed four false starts this year. My God. Roberto Garza is Olin Kreutz. We just can't get rid of that sonofabitch.
That's all for now. After 44 sacks allowed last year, and 149 allowed since 2010, the Bears have finally made it a real priority to upgrade this dumpster fire of a unit. Marc Trestman's scheme will certainly help, but we've heard that story before. The important thing is that Emery has shown a willingness to spend money on protecting his quarterback, and I hope he's willing to invest draft picks on it as well. We can only hope Bushrod, Slauson, and the hopeful rookie-to-be-named-later can lead to the first truly productive offensive line the Bears have had since Superbowl 41.
Friday, March 29, 2013
2012 Bears Position Reviews: Tight Ends
This review is a lot easier to write now with the Bennett acquistion in the rear view mirror and Kellen Davis now a Brown. I'm not sure if I can stomache describing the performance of the Bears tight ends in 2012 if I thought there was a possibility it could happen again.
To say the TE position was an unmitigated disaster last year is probably an affront to unmitigated disasters. The Hindenburg was at least an engineering marvel at one point. Kellen Davis and Co. were just shit from start to finish.
#87 Kellen Davis: 16 games, 15 games started, 19 receptions for 229 YDs, 2 TDs, 12.1 YPC, 14.3 YPG
Oh boy. I'm going to do this review in the compliment sandwich format.
Good thing about Kellen Davis: 12.1 YPC is a nice average for a tight end.
Bad things about Kellen Davis: Well, after bitching that he was misused as a blocking and red zone only tight end under Mike Martz, Kellen got a new contract and a nice opportunity to prove himself. He responded by dropping 30% of the passes thrown his way, fumbling to start the game agains thte Houston Texans, regressing as both a pass-blocker and a run-blocker, and ultimately finished as the 55th ranked TE in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus. I can't tell you how bad that is, but according to the internet, there are only 32 teams in the NFL, so...Kellen failing to break the top fifty may be a bad thing.
The problem with Kellen is that he looks like a great tight end. He's 6'6", 260 and he runs a 4.5 40. He gets open downfield on the seam route. Everything about him screams "throw me the ball." Then, you know, he just doesn't catch it. Kellen Davis was more ineffective at catching the football than Devin Hester. His catch rate this year made Roy Fucking Williams look like Jerry Rice.
The most disappointing thing about Kellen was that last year was a golden opportunity for a tight end to make himself an indispensable part of the offense. After Marshall the wide receiver corps was a revolving door of injured or ineffective players. Tice was apparently determined not to use Forte as the receiving threat he'd been under Martz, so any tight end worth his salt could have had one hell of a year as Jay's #2 option. Instead, the Bears would have been equally well off just putting a cardboard cutout of a tight end on the field. It, too, would get open as the defense ignored it, and it would be just as useless as Kellen as the ball bounced in futility off of it's cardboard hands onto the ground.
Good thing about Kellen: he's fucking gone. Enjoy Cleveland, pal.
#89 Matt Spaeth: 16 games, 8 games started, 6 receptions for 28 YDs, 1 TD, 4.7 YPC, 1.8 YPG.
Matt Spaeth does one thing, and he does it well. When you pass to him, you end up with shit like that awful, awful drop against the Panthers. As a receiver he's so bad and slow that they kept Kellen Davis in the starting lineup for 15 games, for the sake of f*&k. He finished with a +10.6 rating as a blocker from Pro Football, and was their top-rated run-blocking TE. He was, however, overpaid for a blocking specialist (the last casualty of the Martz Era, you could say) and is approaching 30, so the Bears got cheaper and younger without sacrifice too much blocking by signing converted offensive tackle Steve Maneri from Kansas City to take his place.
So long, Matt. We'll always have...did you do anything we'll remember?
#86 Kyle Adams: 15 games, 2 games started, 4 receptions for 40 YDs, 0 TDs, 10 YPC, 2.7 YPG
The only tight end from last year who has survived the purge so far, Adams isn't much more than a warm body. He's slow (4.84 40 time), he was rather unimpressive blocking and catching, and seems rather superfluous given the addition of Bennett and Maneri and with Rodriguez presumably taking a bigger role as a lead blocker and a receiving option next year.
#48 Evan Rodriguez: 12 games, 5 games started, 4 receptions for 21 YDs, 0 TDs, 5.3 YPC, 1.8 YPG
Not technically a tight end, but it didn't seem fitting to give Evan Rodriguez his own article. Despite coming out of college with a reputation as a receiving-only tight end who is a liability as a blocker, Evan was one of the top-rated lead blockers in football last year but saw just eight targets all year. The West Coast Offense is one of the few that still utilizes a true fullback, particularly in the passing game, so you would expect Evan to play a bigger part next year, provided he stays healthy and avoids further entanglements with the law.
That's all for now. Next time: the annual review of the perpetually disappointing offensive line. I'll begin steeling myself immediately.
To say the TE position was an unmitigated disaster last year is probably an affront to unmitigated disasters. The Hindenburg was at least an engineering marvel at one point. Kellen Davis and Co. were just shit from start to finish.
#87 Kellen Davis: 16 games, 15 games started, 19 receptions for 229 YDs, 2 TDs, 12.1 YPC, 14.3 YPG
Oh boy. I'm going to do this review in the compliment sandwich format.
Good thing about Kellen Davis: 12.1 YPC is a nice average for a tight end.
Bad things about Kellen Davis: Well, after bitching that he was misused as a blocking and red zone only tight end under Mike Martz, Kellen got a new contract and a nice opportunity to prove himself. He responded by dropping 30% of the passes thrown his way, fumbling to start the game agains thte Houston Texans, regressing as both a pass-blocker and a run-blocker, and ultimately finished as the 55th ranked TE in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus. I can't tell you how bad that is, but according to the internet, there are only 32 teams in the NFL, so...Kellen failing to break the top fifty may be a bad thing.
The problem with Kellen is that he looks like a great tight end. He's 6'6", 260 and he runs a 4.5 40. He gets open downfield on the seam route. Everything about him screams "throw me the ball." Then, you know, he just doesn't catch it. Kellen Davis was more ineffective at catching the football than Devin Hester. His catch rate this year made Roy Fucking Williams look like Jerry Rice.
The most disappointing thing about Kellen was that last year was a golden opportunity for a tight end to make himself an indispensable part of the offense. After Marshall the wide receiver corps was a revolving door of injured or ineffective players. Tice was apparently determined not to use Forte as the receiving threat he'd been under Martz, so any tight end worth his salt could have had one hell of a year as Jay's #2 option. Instead, the Bears would have been equally well off just putting a cardboard cutout of a tight end on the field. It, too, would get open as the defense ignored it, and it would be just as useless as Kellen as the ball bounced in futility off of it's cardboard hands onto the ground.
Good thing about Kellen: he's fucking gone. Enjoy Cleveland, pal.
#89 Matt Spaeth: 16 games, 8 games started, 6 receptions for 28 YDs, 1 TD, 4.7 YPC, 1.8 YPG.
Matt Spaeth does one thing, and he does it well. When you pass to him, you end up with shit like that awful, awful drop against the Panthers. As a receiver he's so bad and slow that they kept Kellen Davis in the starting lineup for 15 games, for the sake of f*&k. He finished with a +10.6 rating as a blocker from Pro Football, and was their top-rated run-blocking TE. He was, however, overpaid for a blocking specialist (the last casualty of the Martz Era, you could say) and is approaching 30, so the Bears got cheaper and younger without sacrifice too much blocking by signing converted offensive tackle Steve Maneri from Kansas City to take his place.
So long, Matt. We'll always have...did you do anything we'll remember?
#86 Kyle Adams: 15 games, 2 games started, 4 receptions for 40 YDs, 0 TDs, 10 YPC, 2.7 YPG
The only tight end from last year who has survived the purge so far, Adams isn't much more than a warm body. He's slow (4.84 40 time), he was rather unimpressive blocking and catching, and seems rather superfluous given the addition of Bennett and Maneri and with Rodriguez presumably taking a bigger role as a lead blocker and a receiving option next year.
#48 Evan Rodriguez: 12 games, 5 games started, 4 receptions for 21 YDs, 0 TDs, 5.3 YPC, 1.8 YPG
Not technically a tight end, but it didn't seem fitting to give Evan Rodriguez his own article. Despite coming out of college with a reputation as a receiving-only tight end who is a liability as a blocker, Evan was one of the top-rated lead blockers in football last year but saw just eight targets all year. The West Coast Offense is one of the few that still utilizes a true fullback, particularly in the passing game, so you would expect Evan to play a bigger part next year, provided he stays healthy and avoids further entanglements with the law.
That's all for now. Next time: the annual review of the perpetually disappointing offensive line. I'll begin steeling myself immediately.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
SKO vs. Telander 4: The Pastening
When the news came out that Brian Urlacher was leaving Chicago, I was sad for a number of reasons. First, a player who had been synonymous with the idea of “Bears Defense” for a decade was leaving us to (maybe) play for someone else.
And second, because nobody at the Sun-Times was flailing around like a lunatic about it. Even Morrissey wrote a sensible, well-measured column about how this was the right decision, no matter how painful it was.
But then, like a light out of the darkness, came Rick Telander. Riding his high, high horse and holding a jar of the finest French paste aloft, he seemed to say, “Fret not, Erik. For just as I prophesied in August that the Bears could, and should, cut Urlacher for maybe having a hurt knee, so too shall I now overreact in the complete fucking opposite direction because I have the short-term memory of an earthworm.”
And lo, Telander did open his mouth, and forth spilled italics.
2012 Bears Position Reviews: Wide Receivers
In terms of total talent, the Bears wide receiver corp improved vastly from 2011-2012. In terms of production, however, the bump in total production wasn't quite what we'd hoped, with the wide receivers combining for 197 receptions for 2526 YDs and 17 TDs in 2012 vs. 159 receptions for 2369 YDs and 9 TDs in 2011. Obviously the hope is for better protection, play-calling, and most of all health from Brandon Marshall's comrades next year. I also wouldn't be surprised to see them add a speedier alternative at the slot.
#15 Brandon Marshall: 16 games, 16 games started, 118 receptions for 1508 YDs, 11 TDs, 12.8 YPC, 94.3 YPG.
Brandon Marshall is a great football player. It's amazing to see a guy like that in a Bears uniform. I never thought it possible. He can turn short passes into long gains. He can gain separation downfield and pull down desperate heaves that seem utterly hopeless at the start. He blocks with intensity and effectiveness. He is a complete receiver, and he is a Bear. That happened.
He came to the Bears with a couple of knocks, though. They said he was a headcase, a team cancer, and that he drops too damn many balls. In his time in Chicago he's been up front and honest about his personality disorder, he's been an advocate for proper mental health care for athletes and anyone else who struggles with issues like his, and he's shown nothing but respect and dedication towards his teammates, at least in the public eye. He is, without a doubt, a steal. As for the drops? Well, yes. There were several, and they sucked. But he brought in 118 f*&king passes, so lay off him, strawman-Brandon Marshall hater that I just invented.
#17 Alshon Jeffery: 10 games, 6 games started, 24 receptions for 367 YDs, 3 TDs, 15.3 YPC, 36.7 YPG
Alshon also came into the NFL with some knocks as well. For one, he was fat. That fortunately did not become an issue this year, even when he was sidelined for long stretches during the season.
The other and somewhat related knock was that he was too slow to be a downfield threat in the NFL. That issue seemed to be put to bed in his first game, when he caught a 42 yard laser from Cutler in the back of the end zone against the Colts. For the season he led the Bears with a very good 15.3 average per reception. Like Marshall, Jeffery creates big plays by using his body and ability to create separation to fight for jump balls. Outside of one miserable game against Academy Award-winning actor Sam Shields, Jeffery was everything we could have hoped for out of a rookie wide receiver when he was on the field.
The problem, of course, was that he missed much of the season with an injury and often seemed out of sync with Jay when he came back. Hopefully, considering his lack of an injury history in college, this will all be behind him next year and he can enjoy a full season as the starting wide receiver the team needs him to be, rather than descending into the black hole of squandered potential that swallowed up guys like Mark Bradley and David Terrell.
#23 Devin Hester: 15 games, 5 games started, 23 receptions for 242 YDs, 1 TD, 10.5 YPC, 16.1 YPG
Sigh. Despite what some might think, the Devin Hester experiment at wide receiver wasn't necessarily destined to fail. Hell, in 2009 he was on pace for over 1,000 yards receiving before he got hurt, although he regressed steadily after that. The problem wasn't that the Bears tried to make Devin Hester a receiver. It's only natural to want to find ways to get the ball in the hands of a dynamic player. The problem was always this bullshit "Devin Hester is a number one receiver" bit. Even after they abandoned that nonsense by acquiring Marshall and Jeffery, there was still an unwarranted emphasis on making Devin something special. He was still starting games on the outside long after it was obvious that Jeffery and Bennett were both better suited for it. In short, the problem was that the Bears tried to make Devin Hester a great receiver, when he was always more suited to be a role player.
Now, that's not to say there's still a place for the Hester Package. The Hester Package was stupid to begin with. Hester should never have been the focus of anything. They should have made him a slot receiver and simply another read, just like everyone else. In those situations, with matchups he could have won inside the numbers, perhaps he'd have been something useful. Instead he was awkwardly forced to run bubble-screens and other gimmicks that they telegraphed well in advance. The Devin Hester Package was, in effect, the Poochie the Dog of the Bears playbook.
Then again, a guy who has never really mastered route-running and has dropped almost 12% of all catchable balls thrown his way over the last four years deserves plenty of blame for his own failures as well. The main takeaway is that the experiment is over, and it was a failure.
#80 Earl Bennett: 12 games, 4 games started, 29 receptions for 375 YDs, 2 TDs, 12.9 YPC, 31.3 YPG
My love for the BBE is well-stated. When healthy, he's a sure handed (tops in the NFL among all NFL receivers with a meager 3.15% drop rate from 2009-2011), reliable slot-receiver who is nearly unstoppable on third down.You know where this is going, don't you?
Earl is, sadly, pretty fragile. He's missed nine games the last two seasons with an assortment of leg, arm, and chest injuries. His injury this year really seemed to throw him off, as he seemed uncomfortable in Tice's offense, and, most uncharacteristically, he dropped several passes. In the end, Bennett's numbers were disappointing for the second straight year (although he had a pretty good excuse for his lack of production after Jay went down in 2011). Hopefully he can reverse the trend of declining health and production next year, or we'll have wasted a good nickname for nothing.
#14 Eric Weems: 12 games, 1 game started, 2 receptions for 27 YDs, 0 TDs, 13.5 YPC, 2.3 YPG
I'm still not sure why the hell Eric Weems and Devin Hester are both on the roster. If Hester's not going to be a receiver at all next year, that leaves over $3.5 million in cap room dedicated to two pure return specialists in a league that's practically eliminated half of the return game with the new kickoff rules. Something's gotta give here.
As for Weems' play in 2012, well, he was a good blocker when he did play at receiver, and he caught half of the four passes thrown his way all season. So, that was nice.
#18 Dane Sanzenbacher: 4 games, 0 games started, 1 reception for 7 YDs, 0 TDs, 7.0 YPC, 1.8 YPG
Sanzenfucker is gone. Let us not speak of him again.
That's all for now. Next time: struggling to come up with the right combination of swear words to describe Kellen Davis.
#15 Brandon Marshall: 16 games, 16 games started, 118 receptions for 1508 YDs, 11 TDs, 12.8 YPC, 94.3 YPG.
Brandon Marshall is a great football player. It's amazing to see a guy like that in a Bears uniform. I never thought it possible. He can turn short passes into long gains. He can gain separation downfield and pull down desperate heaves that seem utterly hopeless at the start. He blocks with intensity and effectiveness. He is a complete receiver, and he is a Bear. That happened.
He came to the Bears with a couple of knocks, though. They said he was a headcase, a team cancer, and that he drops too damn many balls. In his time in Chicago he's been up front and honest about his personality disorder, he's been an advocate for proper mental health care for athletes and anyone else who struggles with issues like his, and he's shown nothing but respect and dedication towards his teammates, at least in the public eye. He is, without a doubt, a steal. As for the drops? Well, yes. There were several, and they sucked. But he brought in 118 f*&king passes, so lay off him, strawman-Brandon Marshall hater that I just invented.
#17 Alshon Jeffery: 10 games, 6 games started, 24 receptions for 367 YDs, 3 TDs, 15.3 YPC, 36.7 YPG
Alshon also came into the NFL with some knocks as well. For one, he was fat. That fortunately did not become an issue this year, even when he was sidelined for long stretches during the season.
The other and somewhat related knock was that he was too slow to be a downfield threat in the NFL. That issue seemed to be put to bed in his first game, when he caught a 42 yard laser from Cutler in the back of the end zone against the Colts. For the season he led the Bears with a very good 15.3 average per reception. Like Marshall, Jeffery creates big plays by using his body and ability to create separation to fight for jump balls. Outside of one miserable game against Academy Award-winning actor Sam Shields, Jeffery was everything we could have hoped for out of a rookie wide receiver when he was on the field.
The problem, of course, was that he missed much of the season with an injury and often seemed out of sync with Jay when he came back. Hopefully, considering his lack of an injury history in college, this will all be behind him next year and he can enjoy a full season as the starting wide receiver the team needs him to be, rather than descending into the black hole of squandered potential that swallowed up guys like Mark Bradley and David Terrell.
#23 Devin Hester: 15 games, 5 games started, 23 receptions for 242 YDs, 1 TD, 10.5 YPC, 16.1 YPG
Sigh. Despite what some might think, the Devin Hester experiment at wide receiver wasn't necessarily destined to fail. Hell, in 2009 he was on pace for over 1,000 yards receiving before he got hurt, although he regressed steadily after that. The problem wasn't that the Bears tried to make Devin Hester a receiver. It's only natural to want to find ways to get the ball in the hands of a dynamic player. The problem was always this bullshit "Devin Hester is a number one receiver" bit. Even after they abandoned that nonsense by acquiring Marshall and Jeffery, there was still an unwarranted emphasis on making Devin something special. He was still starting games on the outside long after it was obvious that Jeffery and Bennett were both better suited for it. In short, the problem was that the Bears tried to make Devin Hester a great receiver, when he was always more suited to be a role player.
Now, that's not to say there's still a place for the Hester Package. The Hester Package was stupid to begin with. Hester should never have been the focus of anything. They should have made him a slot receiver and simply another read, just like everyone else. In those situations, with matchups he could have won inside the numbers, perhaps he'd have been something useful. Instead he was awkwardly forced to run bubble-screens and other gimmicks that they telegraphed well in advance. The Devin Hester Package was, in effect, the Poochie the Dog of the Bears playbook.
Then again, a guy who has never really mastered route-running and has dropped almost 12% of all catchable balls thrown his way over the last four years deserves plenty of blame for his own failures as well. The main takeaway is that the experiment is over, and it was a failure.
#80 Earl Bennett: 12 games, 4 games started, 29 receptions for 375 YDs, 2 TDs, 12.9 YPC, 31.3 YPG
My love for the BBE is well-stated. When healthy, he's a sure handed (tops in the NFL among all NFL receivers with a meager 3.15% drop rate from 2009-2011), reliable slot-receiver who is nearly unstoppable on third down.You know where this is going, don't you?
Earl is, sadly, pretty fragile. He's missed nine games the last two seasons with an assortment of leg, arm, and chest injuries. His injury this year really seemed to throw him off, as he seemed uncomfortable in Tice's offense, and, most uncharacteristically, he dropped several passes. In the end, Bennett's numbers were disappointing for the second straight year (although he had a pretty good excuse for his lack of production after Jay went down in 2011). Hopefully he can reverse the trend of declining health and production next year, or we'll have wasted a good nickname for nothing.
#14 Eric Weems: 12 games, 1 game started, 2 receptions for 27 YDs, 0 TDs, 13.5 YPC, 2.3 YPG
I'm still not sure why the hell Eric Weems and Devin Hester are both on the roster. If Hester's not going to be a receiver at all next year, that leaves over $3.5 million in cap room dedicated to two pure return specialists in a league that's practically eliminated half of the return game with the new kickoff rules. Something's gotta give here.
As for Weems' play in 2012, well, he was a good blocker when he did play at receiver, and he caught half of the four passes thrown his way all season. So, that was nice.
#18 Dane Sanzenbacher: 4 games, 0 games started, 1 reception for 7 YDs, 0 TDs, 7.0 YPC, 1.8 YPG
Sanzenfucker is gone. Let us not speak of him again.
That's all for now. Next time: struggling to come up with the right combination of swear words to describe Kellen Davis.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
2012 Bears Position Reviews: Runningbacks
Mike Tice was supposed to return the Bears offense to traditional, ground-and-pound BEAR FOOTBAW after the team often forgot that half of the offense under Mike Martz. One would think that Tice was an improvement after the Bears finished 10th in the NFL in rushing, but they actually rushed for fewer yards (1970) in 2012 than they had (2015) the year before, just one of many disappointments that the brief Tice Experiment represented.
#22 Matt Forte, 15 games, 15 games started, 248 attempts, 1094 YDs, 5 TDs, 4.4 YPA, 72.9 YPG, 44 rec., 340 YDs, 7.7 YPC, 1 TD.
Taken as a whole, Matt Forte's numbers look respectable, and pretty similar to his very good 2010 campaign, if not the ridiculous season he was on pace for before his injury in 2011. From week to week, however, the story was quite different. Mike Tice seemed to have the not-altogether horrible idea of keeping Forte from having to single-handedly carry the offense as he had the previous year. In reality this led to Tice using Forte irregularly, replacing him with Michael Bush at awkward intervals, and ultimately giving him just 15 or fewer carries in nearly half of his starts. For comparison's sake, Forte had just 8 games with 15 or fewer carries in his last 22 games (minus the Kansas City game where he was injured) under the notoriously pass-happy Mike Martz (the Bears went 15-7 in that time).
Even worse than Tice's inconsistent use of Forte as a runner was his use of Forte as a receiver. Forte had fewer catches this year than in any other year of his career. Even worse than that, his yards per reception average dropped to a paltry 7.7, well below the 10.1 YPC he averaged in two years under Mike Martz. Far too often Tice called plays that featured Forte as a checkdown, rather than a featured target on wheel routes or screens, two plays that were successful staples of Martz offense. Hopefully Trestman will restore the runningback to prominence in the passing game, as he did in 2002 with the Raiders when Charlie Garner had 91 receptions for 941 YDs.
#29 Michael Bush, 13 games, 1 game started, 114 attempts, 411 YDs, 5 TDs, 3.6 YPA, 31.6 YPG, 9 rec., 83 YDs, 9.2 YPC.
Michael Bush's statistics may not appear to be that much better than Marion Barber's from 2011, but the impact he had on the team in short-yardage and goal-to-go situations cannot be overstated. for the first time in recent memory we had no reason to fear when the Bears needed to pick up a yard in crunch time. Of course, sometimes Tice forgot he existed and opted to go empty backfield on 2nd and inches and GOD DAMMIT ANOTHER INTERCEPTION ON A SEAM ROUTE TO KELLEN DAVIS. Unfortunately, his injury came just as the tailspin was beginning, and he was sorely missed. Hopefully he can stay healthy next year, because he's a very useful player to have.
#32 Kahlil Bell, 4 games, 0 games started, 29 attempts, 76 yards, 2.6 YPA, 19.0 YPG, 1 rec., 11 YDs, 11.0 YPC.
Bell was cut in the preseason, as the Bears gave him a new contract in the offseason solely to put the squeeze on Forte. He was re-signed while Forte was hurt and lacked the burst he had shown the year before. He's gone once more and will probably not return.
#25 Armando Allen, 15 games, 0 games started, 27 attempts, 124 yds, 1 TD, 4.6 YPA, 8.3 YPG, 2 rec., 16 YDs, 8.0 YPC.
Allen, previously an afterthought, turned out to be a swift change of pace back who provided a nice complement to the bigger and more powerful Forte and Bush. He's got potential and seems to have proven that he can be trusted with more carries, if needed.
That's all for now, next time I will salivate over Brandon Marshall and pour my scorn upon the (hopefully) last days of the Devin Hester Package.
#22 Matt Forte, 15 games, 15 games started, 248 attempts, 1094 YDs, 5 TDs, 4.4 YPA, 72.9 YPG, 44 rec., 340 YDs, 7.7 YPC, 1 TD.
Taken as a whole, Matt Forte's numbers look respectable, and pretty similar to his very good 2010 campaign, if not the ridiculous season he was on pace for before his injury in 2011. From week to week, however, the story was quite different. Mike Tice seemed to have the not-altogether horrible idea of keeping Forte from having to single-handedly carry the offense as he had the previous year. In reality this led to Tice using Forte irregularly, replacing him with Michael Bush at awkward intervals, and ultimately giving him just 15 or fewer carries in nearly half of his starts. For comparison's sake, Forte had just 8 games with 15 or fewer carries in his last 22 games (minus the Kansas City game where he was injured) under the notoriously pass-happy Mike Martz (the Bears went 15-7 in that time).
Even worse than Tice's inconsistent use of Forte as a runner was his use of Forte as a receiver. Forte had fewer catches this year than in any other year of his career. Even worse than that, his yards per reception average dropped to a paltry 7.7, well below the 10.1 YPC he averaged in two years under Mike Martz. Far too often Tice called plays that featured Forte as a checkdown, rather than a featured target on wheel routes or screens, two plays that were successful staples of Martz offense. Hopefully Trestman will restore the runningback to prominence in the passing game, as he did in 2002 with the Raiders when Charlie Garner had 91 receptions for 941 YDs.
#29 Michael Bush, 13 games, 1 game started, 114 attempts, 411 YDs, 5 TDs, 3.6 YPA, 31.6 YPG, 9 rec., 83 YDs, 9.2 YPC.
Michael Bush's statistics may not appear to be that much better than Marion Barber's from 2011, but the impact he had on the team in short-yardage and goal-to-go situations cannot be overstated. for the first time in recent memory we had no reason to fear when the Bears needed to pick up a yard in crunch time. Of course, sometimes Tice forgot he existed and opted to go empty backfield on 2nd and inches and GOD DAMMIT ANOTHER INTERCEPTION ON A SEAM ROUTE TO KELLEN DAVIS. Unfortunately, his injury came just as the tailspin was beginning, and he was sorely missed. Hopefully he can stay healthy next year, because he's a very useful player to have.
#32 Kahlil Bell, 4 games, 0 games started, 29 attempts, 76 yards, 2.6 YPA, 19.0 YPG, 1 rec., 11 YDs, 11.0 YPC.
Bell was cut in the preseason, as the Bears gave him a new contract in the offseason solely to put the squeeze on Forte. He was re-signed while Forte was hurt and lacked the burst he had shown the year before. He's gone once more and will probably not return.
#25 Armando Allen, 15 games, 0 games started, 27 attempts, 124 yds, 1 TD, 4.6 YPA, 8.3 YPG, 2 rec., 16 YDs, 8.0 YPC.
Allen, previously an afterthought, turned out to be a swift change of pace back who provided a nice complement to the bigger and more powerful Forte and Bush. He's got potential and seems to have proven that he can be trusted with more carries, if needed.
That's all for now, next time I will salivate over Brandon Marshall and pour my scorn upon the (hopefully) last days of the Devin Hester Package.
Monday, March 25, 2013
The Well, I Guess I Am Doing This Afterall 2012 Bears Position Reviews: Quarterbacks
I told myself I wasn't going to do this awful, time-consuming position-by-position recap of the Bears roster this year. It's often depressing, I'm usually burnt out after another late season collapse, and half the people I review are usually gone in free agency by the time I actually finish it. That said, well, the draft is a long way and I'm bored, and so you get to benefit.
Starting today with the quarterbacks:
#6 Jay Cutler: 15 games, 15 games started. 255/434 (58.8%), 3033 YDs, 19 TDs, 14 INTs, 81.3 Rating, 7.0 YPA, 11.9 YPC, 202.2 YPG
More than anything else in 2012, Jay Cutler was the victim of one thing. You could say poor protection, once again, but the culprit was something other than that: wishful thinking. You see, before this year the Jay Cutler camp was pretty neatly divided into the people who have hated him since day one and always will, barring anything but a Superbowl victory, and the more rational part of the fanbase that saw him as a very good quarterback frequently struggling to overcome a supporting cast that's anything but. We'd drawn up those battle lines three years ago, and things had worked out pretty well so far.
Then Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery came along. Mike Tice replaced Mike Martz. Gabe Carimi was going to be the starting right tackle, finally. All of these things meant change, we told ourselves. We even believed that Mike Tice, who had never called plays, had to automatically be an upgrade over Mike Martz, a guy who once directed the NFL's highest-scoring offense in history, simply because he was going to eliminate seven step drops. All of us, including myself, fell into this trap and refused to accept any of the possible evidence to the contrary. The result was that we assumed the problems that ailed the Bears offense were solved before they'd even played a down, and Jay Cutler now pays for this mistake.
As it turned out, while Brandon Marshall is great, there's only so much one wide receiver can do, while Alshon Jeffery and Earl Bennett struggled to even stay on the field, Devin Hester regressed for the fourth straight year, and the tight end position was a black hole where one of every three passes clanged off of stone hands and fell to the ground. Gabe Carimi was even worse in pass protection than the turnstiles the team had thrown out there before him, and was just one of the offenders on Pro Football Focus' 30th ranked offensive line. Perhaps worst of all, Mike Tice proved to be nothing more than a slightly more ballsy John Shoop, a guy with a motley collection of plays that lacked any of the founding principles or cohesion of a legitimate offensive system who often seemed to be just throwing shit at the walls in hopes that something would stick.
But I know, I know. No more excuses for Cutler. You're tired of them. Hell, I'm tired of them. I'm not sure anymore he can be the top ten quarterback I long believed him to be, but I also know that they still haven't created an environment that would allow any quarterback to be one.
In case you haven't heard, from Rosenbloom, Bernstein, or any of the other hacks, this year the story is the same: No more excuses for Jay. Before they've even taken a snap, Jermon Bushrod and Martellus Bennett have fixed the offense, so everything that happens is to be pinned, once again, on the shoulders of number 6. Should they fail, as so many Bears free agents have before them, it doesn't matter, because they're not supposed to, and it'll be Jay's fault if they do.* This time, though, there'll be no reprieve because time will have run out.
That'll be a shame, because, all bullshit aside, Jay's still a damn good quarterback. Pro Football Focus gave him a +8.7 grade this year, his best since his Pro Bowl season in 2008. That doesn't necessarily jive with his conventional numbers, but it turns out you get a much different picture if you factor out the 12% of Jay's passes that were dropped, or consider that, with Tice calling deep balls on a whopping 15.9% of his passes, Jay didn't often have the luxury of padding his stats with routine completions. It's also impressive that he was 3rd in the NFL in completion % while under pressure, considering he was under duress more than any other QB on a contending team.
So yeah, the excuses are gone, even if the problems may not be. After years of "defining moments" for Jay Cutler that actually weren't, he will make or break himself next year. I sure hope he pulls it off, because I don't want to look back on the last five years as a waste. With just one more 3,000 yard season he'll assume his place as the leading passer in Bears history, and yet some people think they'll be better off without him. I have a hard time believing that.
#2 Jason Campbell: 6 games, 1 game started. 32/51 (62.7%), 265 YDs, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 72.8 Rating, 5.2 YPA, 8.3 YPC, 44.2 YPG
I always wonder why the people who criticize the sometimes underwhelming numbers Jay posts as the Bears starting quarterback never bother to compare them to the numbers of everyone else who has tried starting a game for the team in Jay's absence the last three years. Sure, there's more than enough reason to believe Todd Collins and Caleb Hanie would suck even if you place them on the Patriots, but Jason Campbell has always put up respectable numbers on terrible Redskins and Raiders teams with shoddy offensive lines of their own. Even he, however, seemed completely shell-shocked, indecisive, and overwhelmed by the poor situation he was placed in in this offense. Oh well. At least the Bears sabotaged him enough to lower his asking price to a point where they can probably re-sign him to back up Jay again this year?
#12 Josh McCown
Cut at the end of the preseason and re-signed when Jay was concussed. Probably back coaching high school football again.
That's it for now. Tomorrow (maybe) I'll move onto the runningbacks.
*- I don't think Bushrod or Bennett will be disappointments. I certainly hope they won't, but we still shouldn't jump the gun, again.
Starting today with the quarterbacks:
#6 Jay Cutler: 15 games, 15 games started. 255/434 (58.8%), 3033 YDs, 19 TDs, 14 INTs, 81.3 Rating, 7.0 YPA, 11.9 YPC, 202.2 YPG
More than anything else in 2012, Jay Cutler was the victim of one thing. You could say poor protection, once again, but the culprit was something other than that: wishful thinking. You see, before this year the Jay Cutler camp was pretty neatly divided into the people who have hated him since day one and always will, barring anything but a Superbowl victory, and the more rational part of the fanbase that saw him as a very good quarterback frequently struggling to overcome a supporting cast that's anything but. We'd drawn up those battle lines three years ago, and things had worked out pretty well so far.
Then Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery came along. Mike Tice replaced Mike Martz. Gabe Carimi was going to be the starting right tackle, finally. All of these things meant change, we told ourselves. We even believed that Mike Tice, who had never called plays, had to automatically be an upgrade over Mike Martz, a guy who once directed the NFL's highest-scoring offense in history, simply because he was going to eliminate seven step drops. All of us, including myself, fell into this trap and refused to accept any of the possible evidence to the contrary. The result was that we assumed the problems that ailed the Bears offense were solved before they'd even played a down, and Jay Cutler now pays for this mistake.
As it turned out, while Brandon Marshall is great, there's only so much one wide receiver can do, while Alshon Jeffery and Earl Bennett struggled to even stay on the field, Devin Hester regressed for the fourth straight year, and the tight end position was a black hole where one of every three passes clanged off of stone hands and fell to the ground. Gabe Carimi was even worse in pass protection than the turnstiles the team had thrown out there before him, and was just one of the offenders on Pro Football Focus' 30th ranked offensive line. Perhaps worst of all, Mike Tice proved to be nothing more than a slightly more ballsy John Shoop, a guy with a motley collection of plays that lacked any of the founding principles or cohesion of a legitimate offensive system who often seemed to be just throwing shit at the walls in hopes that something would stick.
But I know, I know. No more excuses for Cutler. You're tired of them. Hell, I'm tired of them. I'm not sure anymore he can be the top ten quarterback I long believed him to be, but I also know that they still haven't created an environment that would allow any quarterback to be one.
In case you haven't heard, from Rosenbloom, Bernstein, or any of the other hacks, this year the story is the same: No more excuses for Jay. Before they've even taken a snap, Jermon Bushrod and Martellus Bennett have fixed the offense, so everything that happens is to be pinned, once again, on the shoulders of number 6. Should they fail, as so many Bears free agents have before them, it doesn't matter, because they're not supposed to, and it'll be Jay's fault if they do.* This time, though, there'll be no reprieve because time will have run out.
That'll be a shame, because, all bullshit aside, Jay's still a damn good quarterback. Pro Football Focus gave him a +8.7 grade this year, his best since his Pro Bowl season in 2008. That doesn't necessarily jive with his conventional numbers, but it turns out you get a much different picture if you factor out the 12% of Jay's passes that were dropped, or consider that, with Tice calling deep balls on a whopping 15.9% of his passes, Jay didn't often have the luxury of padding his stats with routine completions. It's also impressive that he was 3rd in the NFL in completion % while under pressure, considering he was under duress more than any other QB on a contending team.
So yeah, the excuses are gone, even if the problems may not be. After years of "defining moments" for Jay Cutler that actually weren't, he will make or break himself next year. I sure hope he pulls it off, because I don't want to look back on the last five years as a waste. With just one more 3,000 yard season he'll assume his place as the leading passer in Bears history, and yet some people think they'll be better off without him. I have a hard time believing that.
#2 Jason Campbell: 6 games, 1 game started. 32/51 (62.7%), 265 YDs, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 72.8 Rating, 5.2 YPA, 8.3 YPC, 44.2 YPG
I always wonder why the people who criticize the sometimes underwhelming numbers Jay posts as the Bears starting quarterback never bother to compare them to the numbers of everyone else who has tried starting a game for the team in Jay's absence the last three years. Sure, there's more than enough reason to believe Todd Collins and Caleb Hanie would suck even if you place them on the Patriots, but Jason Campbell has always put up respectable numbers on terrible Redskins and Raiders teams with shoddy offensive lines of their own. Even he, however, seemed completely shell-shocked, indecisive, and overwhelmed by the poor situation he was placed in in this offense. Oh well. At least the Bears sabotaged him enough to lower his asking price to a point where they can probably re-sign him to back up Jay again this year?
#12 Josh McCown
Cut at the end of the preseason and re-signed when Jay was concussed. Probably back coaching high school football again.
That's it for now. Tomorrow (maybe) I'll move onto the runningbacks.
*- I don't think Bushrod or Bennett will be disappointments. I certainly hope they won't, but we still shouldn't jump the gun, again.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Goodbye, Brian
As you probably know, the Bears have announced that they've moved on from Brian Urlacher. For the first time in thirteen years, the Bears will go into the season with a different starting MLB.Urlacher supposedly was given an offer of one year, $2 million and opted not to take it. We'll see how that works out for him.
Let's get the basics out of the way before I move on:
1) This was the right move. Anyone who wants to deny that Urlacher was not very good last year is a fool. His numbers were down, Pro Football Focus had him graded at -11.2, and he suffered two major injuries in two years. His on-field play was highly unlikely to return to form. The Bears could very easily replace his production from last year with a street free agent or a rookie. As for his play from 2000-2011, well, Brian wasn't going to give that to you either.
2) Phil Emery is going to take a lot of shit. The word disrespect will be thrown out a lot. Urlacher's leadership will be mentioned incessantly. His teammates will be interviewed and the locker room will be "upset." All of this was said about Olin Kreutz, and he was terrible before retiring less than half of the way through the season. None of these intangibles will add up to a good football player anymore, and none of them would justify committing precious resources to a burned-out player. As for the locker room? They'll shut up and play football because it's their fucking job. Also, understand that the same columnists and jackasses who will wax nostalgic about Brian and criticize the Bears for letting him go are the exact same people who got an entire summer's worth of work out of writing about how the Bears were foolish not to realize he was done last year.
3) I'm aware this leaves the Bears "thin" at linebacker. I have a crazy gut instinct though that they will add players before the season starts in September. This is because I am psychic and can see beyond your mortal realm.
All of the sarcasm aside, this is still sad news, even if it's not bad news. It's difficult to explain what Brian Urlacher meant to any Bears fans who are my age. Those of us who were born or grew up after the Ditka Bears had long since retired or declined spent years suffering at the hands of Dave Wannstedt and Dick Jauron without a single thing to hang our hat on. The team desperately tried to make names out of guys like Erik Kramer, Curtis Conway, and Big Cat Williams, but no one outside of Chicago truly cared.
Urlacher didn't bring respectability to the franchise, as some may say. They were still embarrassing for a good part of his career. But he did give you a reason to watch besides sheer obligation. He was exciting. He was dominant. He had a combination of speed and power that we're probably not going to see again at that position in a generation. He was a Bear worthy of comparison to the guys our Dads rooted for, and we loved him for it.
He was frequently derided as overrated, and to some extent he was. He was a Hall of Fame player, but we had nothing else and so we made him out to be even more than that. We bought his jersey in record numbers and brought him unwarranted criticism just because people were tired of hearing us talk about him even while the team was going 4-12, but he was something to root for, and we really, really needed that.
Later in his career the team really did become respectable, and unlike Sammy Sosa, the last Chicago superstar to make a living out of being the hero of a terrible franchise, he wasn't threatened by the emergence of other stars like Briggs, Tillman, Forte, or even Cutler. He wanted to win. It's a shame they never won it all with him on the roster. They were close, and no one fought harder than he did to get there.
So yes, today is a sad day. I'm sure Erik will have his work cut out for him fighting off the tidal wave of stupid this will unleash, but today we can at least agree with the meatheads on one point. It will really suck to not have Brian Urlacher anymore, even if they won't understand that the Brian Urlacher we all loved disappeared with his knee ligaments in Minnesota last year.
Let's get the basics out of the way before I move on:
1) This was the right move. Anyone who wants to deny that Urlacher was not very good last year is a fool. His numbers were down, Pro Football Focus had him graded at -11.2, and he suffered two major injuries in two years. His on-field play was highly unlikely to return to form. The Bears could very easily replace his production from last year with a street free agent or a rookie. As for his play from 2000-2011, well, Brian wasn't going to give that to you either.
2) Phil Emery is going to take a lot of shit. The word disrespect will be thrown out a lot. Urlacher's leadership will be mentioned incessantly. His teammates will be interviewed and the locker room will be "upset." All of this was said about Olin Kreutz, and he was terrible before retiring less than half of the way through the season. None of these intangibles will add up to a good football player anymore, and none of them would justify committing precious resources to a burned-out player. As for the locker room? They'll shut up and play football because it's their fucking job. Also, understand that the same columnists and jackasses who will wax nostalgic about Brian and criticize the Bears for letting him go are the exact same people who got an entire summer's worth of work out of writing about how the Bears were foolish not to realize he was done last year.
3) I'm aware this leaves the Bears "thin" at linebacker. I have a crazy gut instinct though that they will add players before the season starts in September. This is because I am psychic and can see beyond your mortal realm.
All of the sarcasm aside, this is still sad news, even if it's not bad news. It's difficult to explain what Brian Urlacher meant to any Bears fans who are my age. Those of us who were born or grew up after the Ditka Bears had long since retired or declined spent years suffering at the hands of Dave Wannstedt and Dick Jauron without a single thing to hang our hat on. The team desperately tried to make names out of guys like Erik Kramer, Curtis Conway, and Big Cat Williams, but no one outside of Chicago truly cared.
Urlacher didn't bring respectability to the franchise, as some may say. They were still embarrassing for a good part of his career. But he did give you a reason to watch besides sheer obligation. He was exciting. He was dominant. He had a combination of speed and power that we're probably not going to see again at that position in a generation. He was a Bear worthy of comparison to the guys our Dads rooted for, and we loved him for it.
He was frequently derided as overrated, and to some extent he was. He was a Hall of Fame player, but we had nothing else and so we made him out to be even more than that. We bought his jersey in record numbers and brought him unwarranted criticism just because people were tired of hearing us talk about him even while the team was going 4-12, but he was something to root for, and we really, really needed that.
Later in his career the team really did become respectable, and unlike Sammy Sosa, the last Chicago superstar to make a living out of being the hero of a terrible franchise, he wasn't threatened by the emergence of other stars like Briggs, Tillman, Forte, or even Cutler. He wanted to win. It's a shame they never won it all with him on the roster. They were close, and no one fought harder than he did to get there.
So yes, today is a sad day. I'm sure Erik will have his work cut out for him fighting off the tidal wave of stupid this will unleash, but today we can at least agree with the meatheads on one point. It will really suck to not have Brian Urlacher anymore, even if they won't understand that the Brian Urlacher we all loved disappeared with his knee ligaments in Minnesota last year.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
And We're Back! Sadly, so is Morrissey.
First and foremost, I apologize for our extended absence
from the airwaves. Red usually does some X’s and O’s shit during this period,
but there seemed little point in doing so during a period of major transition.
I had little to comment about in the media, as there just hadn’t been much to
talk about until free agency began. Iggins! is just butthurt that nobody else
around here cares about basketball, no matter how creatively he names his
posts.
Anyway, as you may have heard, not one, not two, but three Chicago sportswriters came away
from Tuesday’s glorious acquisitions of Martellus Bennet and Jermon Bushrod
thinking “Man, we’ll finally get to blame Jay Cutler when he fails.” Seriously,
it’s like they want him to lose just
so they can be right.
Since he’s the most offensive, and also because we just
flat-out dislike him the most, I chose to go after Morrissey’s. Did you really
expect anything else? You know the drill by now, he’s in italics.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Me and Marty B: Bears Free Agency So Far
Oh, hello there. You may have forgotten we existed. That's okay. We kind of did, too. Sure, I probably should have done my yearly methodical player reviews to fill the space between our discussion of Lovie/Trestman and free agency, but there were other, more important things and I didn't feel like doing it. Sue me.
The last two days, however, have provided actual activity to discuss, so let's get to it.
As you all know by now, the Bears have made two major free agent signings: LT Jermon Bushrod of the Saints for five years and nearly $40 million, and TE Martellus Bennett for a rumored four years and $20 million. If you've been following those developments on Twitter than you also know two things: Bushrod is overpaid and was barely better than J'Marcus Webb this year and Marty B. is somewhat crazy.
Here's what I have to say about point one: Yes, if you are just looking at Bushrod as an upgrade at left tackle, he probably didn't out play J'Marcus Webb enough in 2012 to justify his contract. According to Pro Football Focus, the source of this controversy, Webb finished the year with an overall grade of -0.8 while Bushrod finished at +1.5. That's not a vast difference, certainly not one worth $7 million annually, so clearly the Bears made a mistake, right?
I disagree. Bushrod did have a slow start this year (after starting at -7.5 in his first three games, he was much closer to his 2011 form the rest of the year), but still finished with a positive grade. He also was one of the top ten tackles in all of football in 2011 at +14.0, while Webb is just a year removed from a -16.2 in 2011. That right there IS a vast difference.
Considering Bushrod is just 28, there's no reason to believe that a repeat of his above-average 2012 is what to expect going forward, rather than his stellar 2011. There's also little reason to believe that Webb, who had to make monumental leaps just to reach his slightly-below-aveage peak this year, is going to develop much beyond that. Their metrics also don't account for the fact that Webb frequently required the assistance of tight ends and runningbacks, while Bushrod was left alone on nearly 80% of Drew Brees' 697 dropbacks (the Bears attempted just 529 dropbacks). As the Pro Football Focus guys themselves said, "With a fan base baying for a change of plan at left tackle it would’ve been a very brave move to leave Webb in place for the 2013 season."
Even if Bushrod simply repeats his 2012 performance, however, that's still not an indication that the Bears were wrong to sign him. This team needed to add a proven tackle. They made a hard push for Phil Loadholt, the Vikings right tackle, before he chose to stay in Minnesota. That right there should tell you that they understand that Webb wasn't a disaster at LT this year. Once Loadholt was off the market, the Bears were left with a market that contained more good LTs than RTs, and they realized that adding a quality tackle is better than not adding one.
Lost in all of this is that the Bears aren't cutting J'Marcus Webb, who suddenly has a strangely large and dedicate following despite years of often unwarranted criticism. Emery's already announced that Webb will compete at right tackle, if he wins the job (and sorry, Gabe Carimi, but there's little reason to believe he won't), there's plenty of reason for optimism. Webb's light years ahead of the raw, undisciplined rookie who posted a -32.5 grade in 9 starts at RT in 2010. This is a move that may have improved both tackle positions, and not just provided a marginal upgrade at one. It's a good move.
As for point two: Oh yeah, Marty B. is crazy. That's a well-established pattern from the day at the combine when he answered a question regarding him playing both basketball and football in college with "football is my wife, basketball is my mistress." In his press conference today he referred to himself as the Black Unicorn and said he signed with the Bears because they're his second favorite animal after dinosaurs.
He's also a very good tight end. After emerging from Jason Witten's shadow in Dallas and signing with the Giants last year he caught 55 passes for 626 yards and 5 TDs. He's also what Pro Football Focus described as an elite blocker, and that factored into their statement that Bennett was undoubtedly the best TE on the market, even if Jared Cook was a flashier receiver. This is a huge upgrade over Kellen Davis (fun stat: he dropped 29.6% of all catchable balls thrown his way last year. Woof), but you didn't need me to tell you that.
The next few days and weeks before the draft will truly show us what Phil Emery is made of, as he juggles the monumental tasks of creating cap space, cutting veterans (Kellen Davis, Matt Toeiana, and Matt Spaeth all got the axe today or will in the next few days), and figuring out if/how to re-sign the teams own veterans and add a few other bargains, if possible. As Emery himself said in his press conference, the Bushrod and Bennett moves are also important in that they gave the team a great deal of flexibility in the draft. I'm sure I'll have more to say by then.
Conclusion: These were good moves. Go Bears.
The last two days, however, have provided actual activity to discuss, so let's get to it.
As you all know by now, the Bears have made two major free agent signings: LT Jermon Bushrod of the Saints for five years and nearly $40 million, and TE Martellus Bennett for a rumored four years and $20 million. If you've been following those developments on Twitter than you also know two things: Bushrod is overpaid and was barely better than J'Marcus Webb this year and Marty B. is somewhat crazy.
Here's what I have to say about point one: Yes, if you are just looking at Bushrod as an upgrade at left tackle, he probably didn't out play J'Marcus Webb enough in 2012 to justify his contract. According to Pro Football Focus, the source of this controversy, Webb finished the year with an overall grade of -0.8 while Bushrod finished at +1.5. That's not a vast difference, certainly not one worth $7 million annually, so clearly the Bears made a mistake, right?
I disagree. Bushrod did have a slow start this year (after starting at -7.5 in his first three games, he was much closer to his 2011 form the rest of the year), but still finished with a positive grade. He also was one of the top ten tackles in all of football in 2011 at +14.0, while Webb is just a year removed from a -16.2 in 2011. That right there IS a vast difference.
Considering Bushrod is just 28, there's no reason to believe that a repeat of his above-average 2012 is what to expect going forward, rather than his stellar 2011. There's also little reason to believe that Webb, who had to make monumental leaps just to reach his slightly-below-aveage peak this year, is going to develop much beyond that. Their metrics also don't account for the fact that Webb frequently required the assistance of tight ends and runningbacks, while Bushrod was left alone on nearly 80% of Drew Brees' 697 dropbacks (the Bears attempted just 529 dropbacks). As the Pro Football Focus guys themselves said, "With a fan base baying for a change of plan at left tackle it would’ve been a very brave move to leave Webb in place for the 2013 season."
Even if Bushrod simply repeats his 2012 performance, however, that's still not an indication that the Bears were wrong to sign him. This team needed to add a proven tackle. They made a hard push for Phil Loadholt, the Vikings right tackle, before he chose to stay in Minnesota. That right there should tell you that they understand that Webb wasn't a disaster at LT this year. Once Loadholt was off the market, the Bears were left with a market that contained more good LTs than RTs, and they realized that adding a quality tackle is better than not adding one.
Lost in all of this is that the Bears aren't cutting J'Marcus Webb, who suddenly has a strangely large and dedicate following despite years of often unwarranted criticism. Emery's already announced that Webb will compete at right tackle, if he wins the job (and sorry, Gabe Carimi, but there's little reason to believe he won't), there's plenty of reason for optimism. Webb's light years ahead of the raw, undisciplined rookie who posted a -32.5 grade in 9 starts at RT in 2010. This is a move that may have improved both tackle positions, and not just provided a marginal upgrade at one. It's a good move.
As for point two: Oh yeah, Marty B. is crazy. That's a well-established pattern from the day at the combine when he answered a question regarding him playing both basketball and football in college with "football is my wife, basketball is my mistress." In his press conference today he referred to himself as the Black Unicorn and said he signed with the Bears because they're his second favorite animal after dinosaurs.
He's also a very good tight end. After emerging from Jason Witten's shadow in Dallas and signing with the Giants last year he caught 55 passes for 626 yards and 5 TDs. He's also what Pro Football Focus described as an elite blocker, and that factored into their statement that Bennett was undoubtedly the best TE on the market, even if Jared Cook was a flashier receiver. This is a huge upgrade over Kellen Davis (fun stat: he dropped 29.6% of all catchable balls thrown his way last year. Woof), but you didn't need me to tell you that.
The next few days and weeks before the draft will truly show us what Phil Emery is made of, as he juggles the monumental tasks of creating cap space, cutting veterans (Kellen Davis, Matt Toeiana, and Matt Spaeth all got the axe today or will in the next few days), and figuring out if/how to re-sign the teams own veterans and add a few other bargains, if possible. As Emery himself said in his press conference, the Bushrod and Bennett moves are also important in that they gave the team a great deal of flexibility in the draft. I'm sure I'll have more to say by then.
Conclusion: These were good moves. Go Bears.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Tuesday(?) Hoopyball Recap
-It was a long weekend for me, so the recap will span from two Fridays past to last night! The Bulls went 5-2 since Friday, January 11:
The Bulls kicked off this stretch by shellacking the Knicks. They won 108-101 but were up comfortably halfway through the fourth before they let the Knicks score a bunch of garbage time points. The game said equal things about how over their own heads the Knicks were playing to start the year and how good the Bulls can be.
Of course, the Bulls followed that up by losing by 16 points, at home, to the worst team in the West, Phoenix. I wrote about this last Monday, but it bears repeating: the Bulls simply can't take nights off. Before they could turn in lackluster efforts and be bailed out by D. Rose. Without him they need to work hard night in and night out. Luckily, it does seem like this loss kicked the Bulls into gear.
The next game came Monday against Atlanta, and you may not see a better defensive performance from a team all season. The Bulls won 97-58, broke several defensive records, and made Atlanta look like an AAU team. It certainly seemed like the beating administered by the Suns started something in this team that had been lacking for much of the season.
Next came an OT game against the Raptors in Toronto. The Bulls managed a 2 point win, but it wouldn't have ever been that close, and certainly would not have gone to overtime in the first place, if Marco Belinelli would not have taken 7 ill-advised shots down the stretch. Despite Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer both being on the floor, the Bulls ran their entire offense through Belinelli for the last 4 minutes of regulation and almost the entirety of overtime (before they got smart and gave it to Deng to finish it off). I like Belinelli, but he was out of control on this night and he didn't have his shot. I can't be sure if this was Thibs' idea or the team's, but it shouldn't have happened. Deng should have been the go-to guy.
On Friday the Bulls played their second straight overtime game, this one in Boston versus the Celtics. Deng and Boozer had great games, but Deng went down in the fourth (and hasn't played since, he's day to day) and things looked bleak. Luckily, as time was running out Marco Belinelli charged the hoop and lost the ball (there was much rage, this is not the lucky part), but it bounced straight to Kirk Hinrich who nailed a jumper with 3 seconds left to send this one into OT. Belinelli would redeem himself in OT when he hit the game winner with under 10 seconds to go as he was falling down and fading away. It was an impressive shot, and it gave the Bulls the 100-99 win.
Sadly, the Bull's three game win streak would come to an end in their third straight overtime game on Saturday against Memphis. You know it's a defensive battle when a game ends in OT and the score is 85-82. The big story out of this one, aside from another Bull home loss, was that Tom Thibodeau sat Joakim Noah for nearly the entire second half. When asked why, all he would say is that Jo knew why. Whatever happened, it seems to be over, as Jo played full minutes against Los Angeles last night, and it seemed to work, because...
The Bulls beat the Lakers last night at the UC, 95-83. The Lakers may not be a great team overall, but they do have a great offense, and holding them to 83 points is a great accomplishment, not to mention getting home wins for this team seems to be like pulling teeth. This brought the Bulls to 24-16.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
For the Record: Blame Canada Edition
Alright, well, let me start this off by saying this could be a good hire. There's no way of knowing until it plays out. But here's why I think Arians was the better choice:
1)
The last time Trestman was in the NFL was 2004. He was the assistant head coach and QB coach of the Dolphins. That team went 4-12.
The last time Bruce Arians was in the NFL was last year. He took a Colts team that earned the #1 draft pick the year before and had just seen their real head coach diagnosed with cancer and led them to the playoffs at 11-5.
2)
The popular thumbs up to Trestman is the QBs he worked with. He worked with Steve Young!... for two years. What happened those two years? They lost to the Packers in the divisional playoffs. Both years. You know who else he QB coached? Jake Plummer! From 1998 to 2000. From 2001-2003 he was the OC for the Raiders! Who made the Super Bowl in 2002! So why only until 2003 then? Surely he got a better job! Well... no. See, the Raiders dropped straight into the shitter, to 4-12, he got canned, did the Dolphins thing for one year, and then went to NC State. NOT TO BE THE HEAD COACH! Nope. He was their offensive coordinator!
A popular argument for Arians is the QBs he worked with. He worked with Ben Roethlisberger! What happened between 2007 and 2011 for the Steelers? They won the Super Bowl in 2008 and went back in 2010. In his last season they went 12-4 but lost in the divisional round. Roethlisberger's numbers spike considerably in 2007, coinciding nicely with Arians' arrival. Roethlisberger continues to be a very good QB. What happened with Trestman's QBs? Well, aside from Steve Young, who had ALREADY WON A SUPER BOWL WHEN TRESTMAN GOT THERE, he was the QB coach AND the OC for Jake Plummer's worst two seasons, his second and third. He was the QB coach and OC for the Raiders with Rich Gannon... and Gannon's numbers stayed exactly the same as they were before he got there, until his third and final season in Oakland when they went 4-12. Then he was the offensive coordinator for NC State. What did NC State do in the two years he was there? 7-5 the first year, 3-9 the second year. The second season NC State did not score more than 24 points in a game. In the first season they did it once. Against Eastern Kentucky.
3)
The big thing today was that Emery chose Trestman because he wanted a disciplinarian for Jay. Someone who would hold Jay accountable. Is Phil Emery out of his GODDAMNED MIND?
A) Why would Jay listen to this CFL guy? He... commands respect? I just outlined Trestman's whole NFL career (leaving out his stints as the Lions QB coach in 1997 and his activities in the 1980s because... well, why pile on?) and it is not impressive. So Jay was being coached by Lovie Smith... who had made as many Super Bowls as a head coach as Trestman has at any position... and who has been an NFL head coach for exactly nine more years than Trestman (who has NEVER been an NFL head coach)... but yeah, Jay will surely listen to him more. Because look what Trestman did! He coached Steve Young for two years after Steve Young was already amazing! He coached Rich Gannon two years after Rich Gannon had already become great... then in his third year drove Rich into the ground! He coached Jake Plummer, who... well, Red, you understand that part. He coached Scott Mitchell! Jesus I'm depressing myself. I need you to realize I am not leaving anything out here except his CFL stint. This guy's entire NFL body of work is incredibly underwhelming.
B) So we're building around Cutler. Fine! Actually, I'm on board with that, because Emery has made his decision and he's sticking to it. That's all I wanted him to do, and it looks like Jay is here for the long haul. So, instead of getting a guy who, just LAST FUCKING YEAR, coached Andrew Luck into the rookie of the year (probably) and the Colts to 11-5... and before that turned Rapelisberger into the QB he is today... we grabbed a guy who has literally never developed a starting QB to be better than he already is. And this is because... I guess Arians wasn't going to yell at Jay? This sounds like the worst idea. This sounds like the absolute worst idea I have ever heard.
Look, I'm not jumping off a bridge here. Yet. But we just passed on the coach of the year in the NFL, a guy who has proven he can develop QBs, a guy who has proven he understands offense in today's NFL... for a guy whose resume looks like this? Because he will "hold Jay accountable"? Alright, nevermind. I'm jumping off the bridge.
This was definitely the bold hire. It’s not a stupid one, but it will definitely either make Phil Emery a genius or an all-time Bears goat. He’s either going to be the bold visionary who took a chance on a brilliant offensive mind, or “dat guy who hired da CFL cooch.”
Personally, I’m okay with this. It’s less about the QBs he’s worked for (he’s had great success and some failures, and that logic can always be dodgy) and more about the fact that he’s successfully adapted his offense pretty much every where he’s gone. He’s run a base West Coast with Gannon, a mobile West Coast with Young, and a spread in Canada. At the very least, he’ll be creative and adaptable, something the Bears just haven’t been on offense.
The Cutler stuff has more to do with Trestman working with Jay as his personal QB coach before the 2006 draft. He’s done that with several QBs lately. His reputation as an offensive mind is well-deserved, and I’m excited to see how his willingness to adapt the west coast offense to a 12 man spread translates into molding a new NFL offense in Chicago.
My concern comes from how well he handles the daily grind of the NFL head coaching job. He’s been an offensive coordinator, so he’s not unfamiliar with the workload and the hours, but it’s still a different scenario to handle it each day of the year. In Canada the practice hours are nowhere near as long, the film sessions are far less grueling…I think he’s capable of doing all of this, but it’s a matter of how quickly he gets up to speed.
My final verdict: not a stupid hire, but we’ll definitely have to simply see how this plays out. Arians would definitely have been the safe pick. Emery sees more potential in Trestman. Let’s see if he’s hanged himself.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Weekend Hoops Update and also Iggins! Eating Crows
This will be unpleasant
- Yeah, so when Kaepernick threw that interception to start the game on Saturday I sent the following text message to Red:
"Oh, Kaepernick is failing? Whoda thunk?"
Then, as if he somehow knew I had pulled an Erik and claimed victory WAY too early, he went bonkers, destroyed Green Bay, and shoved a murder of crows down my throat. So, random 49ers fan who wandered in here weeks ago, I apologize to you and your fan base. Though I still don't think the Niners win the Super Bowl, I will admit that Alex Smith does not beat Green Bay in that game, so my point is invalidated. Switching to Kaepernick was clearly the right call. How dare I ever question Jim Harbaugh, my favorite Bear QB ever (This is not sarcasm, it is disturbingly very true). That is all.
- After the Bulls beat the hell out of the Knicks (the box score says they won by 7, but they were up by more than 20 half way through the fourth quarter), then returned home to AGAIN be beat to hell by a very bad team, this time the Phoenix Suns, the majority of Bulls players were saying their issue was that they get too comfortable at home because they think the UC is going to win them games by itself there, so they get complacent and get their ass kicked. They are missing the obvious here. It isn't the UC that won them games while they were sleepwalking the last two years. It was Derrick... freaking... Rose. Somehow they have all forgotten that Rose goes into Golden Sonic mode whenever he sees his team down by 7+, takes over the game, wakes up his team, and pulls out wins at home even though the team seems less than motivated. The Bulls without Rose don't have the luxury of being able to half-ass anything. If they play to their full capabilities they can play with anyone in the NBA, but that isn't because they have overwhelming talent. Quite the contrary. The current Bulls are loaded with hard workers and coached by an amazing gameplanner. Their strength comes from effort. Without that you get what we saw Saturday night: 79 points against a terrible defense, and an allowed 97 points to a terrible offense. Derrick Rose is so talented that he can lift the Bulls to victory when they slack: without Derrick Rose the Bulls need to realize they can't slack at all.
-I'll digest half a crow for Wisconsin, but I'm reserving full judgment until they play at Indiana on Tuesday and Iowa at Carver on Saturday. The 74-51 win over the Illini was very impressive, but the Illini have been flagging of late, and it's hard to tell how much credence to give this Wisconsin W. The Illini reverted to last year's group on Saturday. Brandon Paul went 1/11 from the field, the Illini were 2/14 from three, and any time that happens they are going to go down hard. Whether Wisconsin really is good or they just caught the Illini on a very Illini night will be determined by how they fare in their next two games. It cannot be reasonably expected of Wisconsin to beat Indiana at Assembly Hall on Tuesday, but keeping the game close will go a long way in maintaining a good public perception. The game at Iowa on Saturday is huge for both squads. If Wisconsin wants to prove they're a contender, they need some B1G road wins, and getting one against the team most likely to take their bubble spot would be great. Iowa grabbed a 20 point win at Northwestern on Saturday and needs to hold their home court to get to the hypothetical 9-9 in conference that will get any B1G team into the NCAA tournament. Added to that is that Fran has owned Wisconsin recently: not only did Iowa sweep them last year, the Hawks also stole Jared Uthoff from them this offseason. That will be a big game.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Lovie, We Hardly Knew Ye (WE WILL DROWN YOU WITH NEW CONTENT)
As the dust settles over the post-Lovie-Smith Chicago landscape, the new coaching situation is still very much in the air. As we said in last week’s For the Record, our pick would be either McCoy or Arians. I’d also be okay with Trestman, who Jimmy Johnson apparently thinks already got the job. How do you know that? Hey, I’m asking you a question. Answer me, thing in the mouth-face.
But despite the fact that they interviewed Mike Singletary (which I’m choosing to believe was only because this city can’t wipe its ass without first asking the opinion of an ’85 Bear instead of the horrifying alternative that they actually might hire Mike Singletary to be their head coach) and a handful of Special Teams guys, including Toub, I think it’s obvious that an offense-minded, decidedly not-Lovie-Smith Chicago coaching staff is on its way in.
Now, despite what Iggins! would have you believe, I was the only one of our merry band whose surety that Lovie would get the axe never wavered. Red called me that Sunday night and explained for like a half hour all the reasons he was certain Lovie was safe, a sentiment that was echoed around the Internet by people who like Lovie Smith. We’ve always been pretty firmly in Lovie’s camp, and I still don’t think he necessarily deserved to get fired, but I understand why he did.
That needlessly long introduction aside, what I wanted to do here was break down a couple of the arguments people had for keeping Lovie around and why, sadly, they weren’t enough to save his job. Because I hate things that are different, the arguments will be in italics and my responses will be in regular ol’ Times.
But despite the fact that they interviewed Mike Singletary (which I’m choosing to believe was only because this city can’t wipe its ass without first asking the opinion of an ’85 Bear instead of the horrifying alternative that they actually might hire Mike Singletary to be their head coach) and a handful of Special Teams guys, including Toub, I think it’s obvious that an offense-minded, decidedly not-Lovie-Smith Chicago coaching staff is on its way in.
Now, despite what Iggins! would have you believe, I was the only one of our merry band whose surety that Lovie would get the axe never wavered. Red called me that Sunday night and explained for like a half hour all the reasons he was certain Lovie was safe, a sentiment that was echoed around the Internet by people who like Lovie Smith. We’ve always been pretty firmly in Lovie’s camp, and I still don’t think he necessarily deserved to get fired, but I understand why he did.
That needlessly long introduction aside, what I wanted to do here was break down a couple of the arguments people had for keeping Lovie around and why, sadly, they weren’t enough to save his job. Because I hate things that are different, the arguments will be in italics and my responses will be in regular ol’ Times.
Friday Hoopyball Recap, 01-11-2013
-The Bulls went 2-1 since last Friday.
First, Friday night, they put on a show, in Miami, and beat the Heat by 7. Big kudos to Carlos Boozer (!?), boy do I hate typing that, who put up 27 and 12. The Heat got dominated inside, which is a great sign for the Bulls. The Heat have been on a slide of their own, but that shouldn't take away from this win. Beating the Heat will eventually pay dividends, especially doing it without Derrick Rose.
Then, Monday night, the Bulls came back home and waxed the Cavaliers, 118-92. Hard to single out a specific performance that really won this game, but Boozer did dominate again. His turn-around jumper has been going in, and when it does he becomes the most dangerous weapon the Bulls have on offense. Beating the Cavs at home should be a given, so no big deal here, but it was good to get to 19-13.
Unfortunately, Wednesday night the Bulls dropped to 19-14 by losing to the Milwaukee Bucks, who apparently have their number in Chicago. Last time, and the only other time these two have played this year, the Bulls went up by 27 and lost. This time the Bulls went up big again in the first, but Brandon Jennings, again, started shooting lights out, and the Bulls went down, 104-96. The comedy of errors that is Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings playing together brings me joy, and it was working exactly as one might think early on. Ellis shot every time he touched the ball, Jennings had to do the same to get his own shots in, and the Bulls just sat and rebounded. Unfortunately, Ellis got into foul trouble, sat down, and Brandon Jennings started to dominate. The Bulls had trouble deciding how to shift a few times down the stretch, which is unforgivable at this point in the season, but the biggest reason they took this loss is Brandon Jennings, When he's on, he's unstoppable. When he's off, the Bucks are awful.
Saturday:
Purdue 61 - #18 Michigan State 84
Purdue couldn't quite capitalize on the momentum they gained from their surprising season-opening win over Illinois. Winning on the road at Sparty is always tough, but the bottom line is that Purdue isn't a great team this year. Bad teams can sneak up on people, and that was surely the case against an Illinois team not yet used to success. MSU may not be contending for a B1G title this year, but they can handle the Boilers at home.
#8 Ohio State 55 - #11 Illinois 74
This was a disaster nearly from the start. I covered it earlier in the week. Suffice it to say, Illinois is pretty good.
Sunday:
Iowa 67 - #2 Michigan 95
Iowa was in control for about 15 minutes of this game. They had the Wolverines out of rhythm, had led the entire first half, and were knocking down open looks. But after that, Michigan asserted itself in a big way. The Hawks clearly aren't up to Michigan's level, but really, there may be 4 other teams in the nation who are.
Wisconsin 47 - Nebraska 41
Covered this already as well. Two mediocre-to-bad teams going at it here.
Northwestern 51 - #9 Minnesota 69
Nevermind about the Tubby Smith crack I made last week. Minnesota is very good, and they don't seem to know it yet, which is great. The game against Indiana tonight will be huge.
Monday:
#5 Indiana 74 - Penn State 51
Nothing to see here.
Tuesday:
#15 Ohio State 74 - Purdue 64
You know, Ohio State may not be as good as once thought. Illinois and Minnesota seem to be the top 10 team OSU was supposed to be.
Wednesday:
Nebraska 47 - #2 Michigan 62
Yup.
#8 Minnesota 84 - #12 Illinois 67
This was in Illinois, by the way. Total Gopher domination. Tubby Smith really has this team working on all cylinders. Trevor Mbakwe coming back is making more sense every day. Don't take this as meaning Illinois isn't as good as they seem, either. Minnesota may just be a top 5 team nationally.
Thursday:
Northwestern 70 - Penn State 54
Yeah.
#22 Michigan State 62 - Iowa 59
Iowa's best player, Roy Devyn Marble, was revealed to be out for this game about an hour before tip. Despite this, Iowa led for the entire game until 8 minutes were left in the second half. They were even up 4 with a minute to go! But a foolish turnover from Mike Gesell doomed them, a final 3 fell short, and the clock ran out on the Hawks again. This game and the 4 point loss at home to Indiana really sting. If those two had just fallen the other way, iowa would be 2-1 with two huge quality wins. Instead, Iowa is 0-3 in the B1G, though they now enter a much easier stretch. Though their next nine games do include trips to Ohio State and Minnesota, the other seven are against Wisconsin twice, Penn State twice, Northwestern twice, and at Purdue. Iowa needs to go 7-2, at the very least, to stay in the bubble conversation, and a win at OSU or Minnesota would certainly help.
Upcoming:
This week the Bulls play four games. Tonight they're at the Knicks, then they're home Saturday to play Phoenix, home Monday for the Hawks, and get back on the road Wednesday to play the Raptors. Hopefully they can go 3-1 there and maybe we hear more good Rose news? The B1G slate is highlighted by #8 Minnesota at #5 Indiana tomorrow, #12 Illinois at Wisconsin tomorrow, #2 Michigan at #15 OSU on Sunday, and #2 Michigan at #8 Minnesota on Thursday. See you back here in a week!
For the Record: Man We Hate The Life of Pi Edition
So, nobody gets into the baseball HoF. One of a myriad reasons that I hate baseball, I swear that article will happen eventually, is the old, meathead curmudgeons that vote for their stuff. Ron Santo couldn't get in alive. But dead? GET THAT CORPSE IN HERE. I hate these people. And now they won't put in Barry Bonds because he did roids, or Clemens because he did roids. What do y'all think of it? I'll save my full opinion because I want to hear what the both of you think first.
You cheated. Yes, you could argue that it's negated by the fact that everyone else was cheating, too, but you still cheated. The "steroid era" thing just encourages more people to do it.
Barry Bonds is a great hitter, there can be no doubt there. He still hit the baseball better than anyone else who was using steroids at the time. But he cheated. If Pete Rose can't get in for gambling on his own team to win, you should not be able to get in despite actual cheating.
The Pete Rose thing is a different conversation, but suffice it to say I think he needs to be in the Hall. I have two streams of thought here:
1) I don't think steroids should be illegal. Much as I don't think you deserve to be babied or that the rules of football need to be changed just because you could get concussions, I don't think steroids are cheating. Everyone who does them knows the risks. You get ragey, your testes shrink, you get gross acne, potentially you grow boobs, and you shorten your life. If you do them you accept this. These guys are sacrificing a lot to get even a tiny edge. I just don't have an issue with that. If you're willing to accept the consequences, more power to you. HOWEVAH...
2) It is against the rules. Whether steroids should be illegal or not, it is clearly written down that you can't do them. So you cheated, dick, and you're a bad person for cheating. Rules suck sometimes, but if there were no rules life would be BS. Ever play a board game "just for fun"? It sucks! Because there's no point. Same here. So I understand why someone might not vote for them.
Of course, on the other hand, baseball has punishments in place for this type of deal. 50 games-150 games-Go find a new job. At the time, they did not have those kinds of punishments in place. And there is no steroid punishment that says CAN'T BE IN THE HALL OF FAME. So, I feel like you have to vote on everyone eligible and vote for the best guys. Bonds is eligible. Clemens is eligible. Sosa is eligible. If you can tell yourself they were worse than Craig Biggio, vote for Biggio. But if you can't you have to vote for them.
I think he should, too, but the rules are the rules and have to be enforced equally.
I don't think that last bit is entirely fair. If you don't think anybody that year is worthy of being down the hall from Ernie Banks, you shouldn't have to vote in a subpar candidate while you're there just because voting was open. The HoF thing isn't about it being a rule that you can't get in if you did steroids. It's that you didn't turn in a Hall of Fame performance, your PEDs did. Sure, a guy like Barry Bonds probably has the natural talent to get there with slightly less impressive numbers, but we'll never know because that's not what happened. You can't vote based on what probably would have happened had he not been using for the better part of his career
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Mid-Week Basketball Thoughts
-Is the East as bad as we all think it is? The first third of the season was marred with contenders hitting .500 or below and the freaking Knicks easily becoming the #2 team in the conference. Couple that with the West housing the Thunder, Spurs, Clippers, the surprising Warriors, and the fiesty Grizzlies... and the East went right back to where it was three years ago. But lately the East has been having a bit of a resurgence. The Bulls and Pacers have settled into life without their stars (Rose and Danny Granger) and now sit at 19-13 and 21-14 respectively, with both of them notching wins over the Heat this week. Atlanta and Brooklyn are falling back to where they should be after hot starts, and Boston is on a 3 game win streak. Could the East have simply gotten off to a poor start because three of the five best teams in the conference had to get used to a very different life (the Celtics lost Ray Allen)?
-Derrick Rose is taking contact in practice now. For other players, that normally means their return will come within two weeks. For Rose? That's highly doubtful. The organization saw what happens when you push a guy who plays like Rose back from injury too quickly, and it's what got them into this mess. Look for the Bulls to give him several weeks of extra practice before he steps onto the court, and when he does come back, don't expect him to play anything over 25 minutes per game for a while. The Bulls have won 3 in a row and 4 of 5, so there's no reason to rush the former MVP into anything. The All-Star game is on February 17. The Bull's first game after is February 19 at New Orleans, but the first home game back is February 21... against the Heat. That would give Derrick 6 weeks of contact practice to heal, maybe get back to regular practice in two to three weeks, and make his debut, at home, to a raucous crowd, against the hated Miami Heat. Sounds perfect to me.
-Illinois had one hell of a bounce-back game against OSU on Saturday. After taking a difficult to swallow loss against Purdue, Brandon Paul continued his high efficiency play, shooting 6/12 from the field, scoring 19 points, and grabbing 7 rebounds, eventually throttling the Buckeyes 74-55. The humorous thing to take away from this game is that Illinois forced OSU to become Illinois from last year. They took away every scoring option OSU had but DeShaun Thomas, and he was more than happy to take 21 shots on the day and score 24 points (that's some bad efficiency). Aaron Craft scored 11, but no other OSU player had more than 8. Groce has really made the most of what he has, and Brandon Paul has emerged as a premier player in the B1G. I would expect a lot of hype for him as a late first rounder in the draft. He has a smooth stroke, takes great shots, and even has some dribble-drive moves. I'm sure the Bulls would love someone like him to fall into their lap.
-One other interesting B1G note, Wisconsin continues to look extremely unimpressive. After surviving mighty Penn State, Wisconsin managed to beat Nebraska 47-41 on Sunday. Before you defend the Badgers by saying they're a defensive team anyway, remember that Nebraska is a mighty 320th in points per game this year... and that was against their weak non-conference schedule. Wisconsin has played 4 good teams. They lost all four games. In those four they scored over 56 points ONE TIME, losing 84-74 to Creighton. The first time Creighton gave up less than 70 points to a quality team this year was literally Saturday, against Indiana State, and they scored 66. Creighton beats you with offense, not defense. Wisconsin will be tested in the B1G in the next couple weeks with games at home against Illinois, at Indiana, at Iowa, home for MSU, home for Minnesota, at OSU, at Illinois... the beat goes on. If they get lucky, do they get one win out of those? Two? Joe Lunardi has this team in the tourney right now... let's see how he feels in two weeks.
-Derrick Rose is taking contact in practice now. For other players, that normally means their return will come within two weeks. For Rose? That's highly doubtful. The organization saw what happens when you push a guy who plays like Rose back from injury too quickly, and it's what got them into this mess. Look for the Bulls to give him several weeks of extra practice before he steps onto the court, and when he does come back, don't expect him to play anything over 25 minutes per game for a while. The Bulls have won 3 in a row and 4 of 5, so there's no reason to rush the former MVP into anything. The All-Star game is on February 17. The Bull's first game after is February 19 at New Orleans, but the first home game back is February 21... against the Heat. That would give Derrick 6 weeks of contact practice to heal, maybe get back to regular practice in two to three weeks, and make his debut, at home, to a raucous crowd, against the hated Miami Heat. Sounds perfect to me.
-Illinois had one hell of a bounce-back game against OSU on Saturday. After taking a difficult to swallow loss against Purdue, Brandon Paul continued his high efficiency play, shooting 6/12 from the field, scoring 19 points, and grabbing 7 rebounds, eventually throttling the Buckeyes 74-55. The humorous thing to take away from this game is that Illinois forced OSU to become Illinois from last year. They took away every scoring option OSU had but DeShaun Thomas, and he was more than happy to take 21 shots on the day and score 24 points (that's some bad efficiency). Aaron Craft scored 11, but no other OSU player had more than 8. Groce has really made the most of what he has, and Brandon Paul has emerged as a premier player in the B1G. I would expect a lot of hype for him as a late first rounder in the draft. He has a smooth stroke, takes great shots, and even has some dribble-drive moves. I'm sure the Bulls would love someone like him to fall into their lap.
-One other interesting B1G note, Wisconsin continues to look extremely unimpressive. After surviving mighty Penn State, Wisconsin managed to beat Nebraska 47-41 on Sunday. Before you defend the Badgers by saying they're a defensive team anyway, remember that Nebraska is a mighty 320th in points per game this year... and that was against their weak non-conference schedule. Wisconsin has played 4 good teams. They lost all four games. In those four they scored over 56 points ONE TIME, losing 84-74 to Creighton. The first time Creighton gave up less than 70 points to a quality team this year was literally Saturday, against Indiana State, and they scored 66. Creighton beats you with offense, not defense. Wisconsin will be tested in the B1G in the next couple weeks with games at home against Illinois, at Indiana, at Iowa, home for MSU, home for Minnesota, at OSU, at Illinois... the beat goes on. If they get lucky, do they get one win out of those? Two? Joe Lunardi has this team in the tourney right now... let's see how he feels in two weeks.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Welcome to Basketball Season, Friday Hoopyball Recaps
Yes, friends, the Bears have been eliminated. Despite the "excitement" of a head coach search and draft prep, that really leaves us with very little to write about concerning the Bears. It also means the only sport involving things related to Chicago going on is basketball, which is generally my wheelhouse. Erik should have plenty of Chicago sports writer cannon fodder concerning this head coach thing, Red will probably break down the year and rosters in preparation for the draft. And I will be taking care of B1G and Bulls hoops. Need a distraction for the eight months between now and the first Bears game of the 13-14 season? ENJOY.
Since last Friday the Bulls have had a strange three games. They started it off on Saturday by beating the Wizards 87-77 in Chicago, which is okay? Of course, the Wizards don't have John Wall, are 4-24, and were lead in scoring by rookie Bradley Beal, who scored 14 points. We'll take it, I guess.
Of course, they followed that performance up by scoring 81 points against the Bobcats, at home, and losing by 10. The Bobcats are a mighty 8-23 and came into Chicago on Monday with an 18 game losing streak. Not the best of days for the Bulls, and that's a loss we should all pretend didn't happen (especially given that the Bulls have a draft pick of the 'cats that is getting closer and closer to being unprotected). Bob-what? The Bulls played who? I think you are mistaken, ser.
They did follow that embarrassment with a 2 point win over the Magic, 96-94, in Orlando on Wednesday. Jameer Nelson dropped 32 points, somehow, but the Bulls still pulled it out, thanks mostly to 31 points and 11 boards from Carlos Boozer. You may have noticed I did not talk about me being personally thankful to Carlos. Me posting his stat line might be the most pleasant thing I have to say about Carlos. Ever. YOU ARE 6'11", CARLOS. STOP SHOOTING FADE-AWAYS GAHHHHH.
The Bulls are currently 17-13 and would be the #5 seed in the East if the season ended today. The relative success of this Bulls team without its best player says a lot about the state of the Eastern Conference. That the Knicks have managed to get to 22-10 with an offense based entirely around shooting threes, Carmelo Anthony, and ancient men perhaps born during the warring states era is another good example to point to. The good news is one Mr. Rose traveled with the team to Orlando and will also be present tonight at the Heat. The timetable for his return seems to be the All-Star break, and if he can return then, get 40% of a season under his belt, and get back into form... well, who knows. But as it stands, this team is still good enough to make the playoffs without Rose.
B1G play also opened this week on Monday. I'm a Hawkeye, Red used to be an Illini fan, but like most Illini fans his interest wanes with how good the Illini are. Now Red is, probably, a Northern Iowa fan. Erik went to Bradley, which would make him a Missouri Valley fan if he knew what basketball was. So, actually, I might have to start recapping the week in the MVC. GO PANTHERS?!
Monday:
#5 Indiana 69 - Iowa 65
I went into this game hoping the Hawks would keep it close, and boy did they. Strangely, though, they didn't really play very well. They went 3/17 from 3, shot 33% from the floor, Roy Devyn Marble (Iowa's best player, arguably) shot a ridiculous 1/14, they got outrebounded by 9... and lost by four with a chance to tie the game with a three with 3 seconds left. Maybe Indiana had an off night too, maybe Iowa is pretty good. Who the hell knows. But one thing is for certain: if Iowa wants in the tourney this year, they should probably stop letting opposing point guards drive directly at the basket for easy layups. There were a couple instances where Victor Oladipo charged, in a straight line, from the three point line to the hoop, while all five Iowa defenders did the MC Hammer "U Can't Touch This" dance. It was strange, and I question the strategical soundeness of the "Hammertime" defense.
#18 Michigan State 63 - #9 Minnesota 76
Michigan State is always a dangerous out, but aside from an early season win over Kansas they haven't been very impressive. They had a five point lead with about 8:30 to go but collapsed in epic fashion, eventually taking a 13 point loss. The Hollins' and Trevor Mbakwe, predictably, were the biggest parts of the comeback. Minnesota is now in the top 10. Watch for Tubby Smith's team to immediately lose, at home, to a beat-up Northwestern team. Because he is Tubby Smith.
Wednesday
Nebraska 44 - #8 Ohio State 70
Ever seen Nebraska play basketball? This was probably a good effort from them. MOVING ON.
#11 Illinois 61 - Purdue 68
Illinois was probably the biggest surprise of the non-conference season. They have a new head coach, lost Meyers Leonard, ad their best player shoots more than Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings COMBINED. But Brandon Paul has been hitting everything, and that's led to wins over Butler, Auburn, Georgia Tech, and at Gonzaga. Very impressive. It should have been predictable, then, that the Illini would lose to 6-6 Purdue in their B1G opener. Brandon Paul had a pretty good game, and it's rare you want a guy like that to shoot MORE, but when he shoots 5/10 from the floor and 4/7 from the field... maybe he should have taken a few more shots.
Thursday
#2 Michigan 94 - Northwestern 66
Not much to say here. NW is missing three of its best players, Michigan has Trey Burke and could win a national title. Sorry, smart kids.
Penn State 51 - Wisconsin 60
Wisconsin has lost all of their difficult games so far this year, lost Jared Uthoff to Iowa this offseason, and their head coach lost a lot of respect in the process. I'm predicting a bad year for the Badgers. This game didn't do much to assuage that fear. Writing about Penn State basketball is like writing about Nebraska basketball. It's just a waste of time.
This Week
The Bulls get the Heat in Miami tonight, the Cavs on Monday, and the Bucks on Wednesday. Hopefully they'll get two wins out of that. B1G highlight games include #8 OSU at #11 Illinois on Saturday, #9 Minnesota at #11 Illinois on Wednesday, and #18 MSU at Iowa on Thursday. Enjoy the hoops, see you back here on Friday!
Since last Friday the Bulls have had a strange three games. They started it off on Saturday by beating the Wizards 87-77 in Chicago, which is okay? Of course, the Wizards don't have John Wall, are 4-24, and were lead in scoring by rookie Bradley Beal, who scored 14 points. We'll take it, I guess.
Of course, they followed that performance up by scoring 81 points against the Bobcats, at home, and losing by 10. The Bobcats are a mighty 8-23 and came into Chicago on Monday with an 18 game losing streak. Not the best of days for the Bulls, and that's a loss we should all pretend didn't happen (especially given that the Bulls have a draft pick of the 'cats that is getting closer and closer to being unprotected). Bob-what? The Bulls played who? I think you are mistaken, ser.
They did follow that embarrassment with a 2 point win over the Magic, 96-94, in Orlando on Wednesday. Jameer Nelson dropped 32 points, somehow, but the Bulls still pulled it out, thanks mostly to 31 points and 11 boards from Carlos Boozer. You may have noticed I did not talk about me being personally thankful to Carlos. Me posting his stat line might be the most pleasant thing I have to say about Carlos. Ever. YOU ARE 6'11", CARLOS. STOP SHOOTING FADE-AWAYS GAHHHHH.
The Bulls are currently 17-13 and would be the #5 seed in the East if the season ended today. The relative success of this Bulls team without its best player says a lot about the state of the Eastern Conference. That the Knicks have managed to get to 22-10 with an offense based entirely around shooting threes, Carmelo Anthony, and ancient men perhaps born during the warring states era is another good example to point to. The good news is one Mr. Rose traveled with the team to Orlando and will also be present tonight at the Heat. The timetable for his return seems to be the All-Star break, and if he can return then, get 40% of a season under his belt, and get back into form... well, who knows. But as it stands, this team is still good enough to make the playoffs without Rose.
Monday:
#5 Indiana 69 - Iowa 65
I went into this game hoping the Hawks would keep it close, and boy did they. Strangely, though, they didn't really play very well. They went 3/17 from 3, shot 33% from the floor, Roy Devyn Marble (Iowa's best player, arguably) shot a ridiculous 1/14, they got outrebounded by 9... and lost by four with a chance to tie the game with a three with 3 seconds left. Maybe Indiana had an off night too, maybe Iowa is pretty good. Who the hell knows. But one thing is for certain: if Iowa wants in the tourney this year, they should probably stop letting opposing point guards drive directly at the basket for easy layups. There were a couple instances where Victor Oladipo charged, in a straight line, from the three point line to the hoop, while all five Iowa defenders did the MC Hammer "U Can't Touch This" dance. It was strange, and I question the strategical soundeness of the "Hammertime" defense.
#18 Michigan State 63 - #9 Minnesota 76
Michigan State is always a dangerous out, but aside from an early season win over Kansas they haven't been very impressive. They had a five point lead with about 8:30 to go but collapsed in epic fashion, eventually taking a 13 point loss. The Hollins' and Trevor Mbakwe, predictably, were the biggest parts of the comeback. Minnesota is now in the top 10. Watch for Tubby Smith's team to immediately lose, at home, to a beat-up Northwestern team. Because he is Tubby Smith.
Wednesday
Nebraska 44 - #8 Ohio State 70
Ever seen Nebraska play basketball? This was probably a good effort from them. MOVING ON.
#11 Illinois 61 - Purdue 68
Illinois was probably the biggest surprise of the non-conference season. They have a new head coach, lost Meyers Leonard, ad their best player shoots more than Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings COMBINED. But Brandon Paul has been hitting everything, and that's led to wins over Butler, Auburn, Georgia Tech, and at Gonzaga. Very impressive. It should have been predictable, then, that the Illini would lose to 6-6 Purdue in their B1G opener. Brandon Paul had a pretty good game, and it's rare you want a guy like that to shoot MORE, but when he shoots 5/10 from the floor and 4/7 from the field... maybe he should have taken a few more shots.
Thursday
#2 Michigan 94 - Northwestern 66
Not much to say here. NW is missing three of its best players, Michigan has Trey Burke and could win a national title. Sorry, smart kids.
Penn State 51 - Wisconsin 60
Wisconsin has lost all of their difficult games so far this year, lost Jared Uthoff to Iowa this offseason, and their head coach lost a lot of respect in the process. I'm predicting a bad year for the Badgers. This game didn't do much to assuage that fear. Writing about Penn State basketball is like writing about Nebraska basketball. It's just a waste of time.
This Week
The Bulls get the Heat in Miami tonight, the Cavs on Monday, and the Bucks on Wednesday. Hopefully they'll get two wins out of that. B1G highlight games include #8 OSU at #11 Illinois on Saturday, #9 Minnesota at #11 Illinois on Wednesday, and #18 MSU at Iowa on Thursday. Enjoy the hoops, see you back here on Friday!
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