Bears
- Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune reports that Mike Martz was actually the one who wanted the timeout that eliminated Chester Taylor‘s third down conversion play last week.
- Matt Willimason from Scouts Inc. underrates the Bears linebackers.
- Williamson also underrates Matt Forte.
- and finally Willimason says this about the Bears coaching staff:
“Kansas City and Chicago are extremely strong with their coordinators, but the Chiefs’ Todd Haley is unproven as a head guy and the Bears’ Lovie Smith has some game-day inconsistencies. Smith has guided his team to the Super Bowl, though.”
He rates the Bears coaching staff a disappointing 9th of the 12 playoff teams.
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel beat writer Bob McGinn gives Bears GM Jerry Angelo some love probably though gritted teeth. (I had to link to this story through commentary by Tom Kowalski at mlive.com rather than directly to the Journal Sentinel because I didn’t want to become a “Packer Insider”. It didn’t sound too masculine to me…
Elsewhere
- Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune quotes Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez as saying that the Bears are the reason they beat the Jets in their first AFC playoff game:
“Sanchez credited his poise and the team’s overall coolness under pressure to the lessons learned in a regular-season loss to the Bears.
“‘The most important thing to me was remembering the Chicago game,’ he said. ‘A field goal … just give us a chance, give us the fourth down, and not turn the ball over like the Chicago game.”’
- ESPN‘s Merril Hoge makes some interesting comments about what the Jets did to beat Peyton Manning:
- Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck tells ESPN that the Seahawks took advantage of the Saints defense making “educated guesses”:
Saints defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, is going to take some heat this week.
- Ben Maller at FOX Sports Radio reports that the bettors took a bath yesterday. Seventy-five percent of the action was on Indianapolis. Sixty-eight percent was on the Saints. Like Maller, I can’t say I’m surprised. Bookies aren’t in the business to lose money and when the split isn’t close to 50-50, you can figure that the result is more likely to end up in Vegas’ favor.
- Williamson rates the top ten NFL rookies this year. The Super Bowl favorite Patriots have two. The Bears have zero.
- Williamson also had this provocative comment:
“If you were not aware, there is an offensive line shortage in the NFL. There are fewer elite lines than in my recent memory. And even some of the best teams in the league are fielding very ordinary units up front.”
I would say that every breathing Bear fan is definitely aware.
- Dave Hyde and Mike Berardino at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel point out that the Dolphins aren’t the only ones who made mistakes in botching the attempt to hire Jim Harbaugh. The press had a bad week as well:
- Darrelle Revis talks to the New York Post about the Jets matchup with the Patriots next week:
The key question is whether the Jets can recover form the butt kicking they took from the Patriots late in the season to play with the needed confidence to win.
- First and Goal, the organization that runs the concessions at Qwest Field in Seattle has been charging fans more for “large” beers that were the same size as the small ones. Via the Associated Press.
One Final Thought
Seattle coach Pete Carroll on their upset win over the Saints (via the Chicago Tribune):
“It didn’t matter what I said to them, or what was said outside, and all of the story lines and all that, they just did not buy it. Where that came from? If I knew that, we’d have something special here. It came out of an attitude and it came out of a faith in one another.”
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