Author: Tom Shannon

Top 10 Things You Can Do with 1000 pounds of Marijuana and Other Points of View

Bears

“I’ve never met an athlete who was more happy to be alive. ‘There’s no way you can always be as happy as you look,’ I would tell him.   And he would smile and say something about getting only one shot at life and making the most of it.  I always thought that was a great quality about Sam Hurd. But maybe not.”

I loved watching Hurd play special teams.  He was the kind of guy who jumped out on the screen as someone who was going with all out effort.  But sometimes players like that, while great on special teams, aren’t as appropriate for the offensive unit, where that kind of effort must be coupled with smart play.

Hurd isn’t some kind of master mind drug dealer.  He’s a guy who came to believe that money leads to success.  So he approached it just like he approaches football.  What’s the fastest way to make money?  “Drugs.”  What’s the fastest way to make a lot of money?  “Sell a lot of drugs.”  So he dove in with boundless enthusiasm and ambition and little else.  It’s a shame.  But looking back at it, maybe it’s not that surprising.

“Asked if Hurd’s shocking arrest will affect his own future, [Jerry] Angelo snapped at a reporter.

“‘Whistle Dixie,’ he said.”

“Barber declined to talk about the play with 1 minute, 55 seconds remaining in Denver when he bounced an inside run outside and went out of bounds to stop the clock for the Broncos, who were out of timeouts.

“‘I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but I just move on,’ Barber said. ‘Just bear with me.'”

Barber was interviewed by Larry Mayer, who works for the Bears owned website and Zack Zaidman who works the Bears game broadcasts (ie. the most Bear-freindly media members they could find). Zaidman told WSCR yesterday that the interview doesn’t tell the whole story. Barber isn’t dodging the questions. Apparently he has a real problem speaking to the media that sounds like it might be classified by some as pathological.

  • Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune writes an outstanding column that gives us all things to concentrate on in our disappointment over the Bears fall:

“Even good teams can’t win every game. But they always can learn.”

“With the moderate success of T.J. Yates in Houston, why not let Nathan Enderle play? It could not be any worse and at least you would know what you have. — David; Coral Springs, FL

“Because Nathan Enderle is not T.J. Yates. There is a reason [Caleb] Hanie was No. 2 on the depth chart and Enderle is No. 3. Throwing a quarterback on the field before he’s ready defeats the purpose of trying to develop him and can have negative short-term and long-term consequences. Maybe I could envision a scenario of allowing Enderle play if the Bears have no shot of making the playoffs in the final game of the season. Then it would be just like a preseason game. Otherwise, he needs to stay parked on the bench.”

“Don’t jump to any conclusions about Angelo retiring. But if Angelo were to leave the team, I think [Tim] Ruskell would by far be the leading candidate to replace him. I think the Bears would be looking to maintain some semblance of the program Angelo started. Coach Lovie Smith likely would remain, and would need someone he felt comfortable with. Ruskell is respected and liked throughout the league and at Halas Hall. As for his Seattle history that you refer to, I think it’s been portrayed inaccurately. Not everything he touched turned to gold, but Ruskell made a lot of solid moves in Seattle and presided over a team that made the playoffs three times in five years.”

I can only say in response that the Seattle media didn’t agree. They savaged Ruskell after he left. It appears that if things continue to go as they have over the last 10 years, we’re probably going to find out the right of it because Ruskell is clearly the next in line.

Elsewhere

“I’ll just say that I think, as players, we would probably like to finish this thing out if we get a chance,” Rodgers said Wednesday of the team’s goals for the stretch run, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “And (have) a chance to maybe keep the Bears and the Lions out of the playoffs like the Bears tried to do to us last year.”

“According to two sources, a group of defensive backs raised concerns about Pagac’s play-calling — specifically, the timing and frequency of blitzes and man-coverage calls — within the first month of the season.

At times, some players simply refused to play the defenses called, yelling out their own coverages as they broke the huddle.”

  • Brain Stelter and Amy Chozick at The New York Times write about the stiff price we pay to watch the NFL on television. Here’s hoping those Internet alternatives they mention materialize soon. As someone who watches sports but very little else, something like being other types of shows on iTunes would be much more affordable. I’d love to get rid of cable.

One Final Thought

Given that its usually sold in “ounces” we’re pretty sure Sam Hurd wasn’t going to find enough people per week to sell his inventory to.  So here are some other possibilities for it:

10. Give it to a little pig for building material and then “Huff and puff and blow his house down”
9.  Burn it, pipe the smoke into Matt Forte‘s hyperbaric chamber and then resign him for a 7-Eleven burrito.
8. Spread it on Soldier Field on game day to cover up the mud.
7. Smoke a turkey with it and make everyone’s Christmas really merry.

6. Make the world’s biggest Christmas tree with it.

5. Pay the supplier with a check signed “Marion Barber” and make sure it bounces before game day.
4. Give it to Caleb Hanie as as a joke since drug tests are the only thing he can pass.
3. Bake it into Love Smith‘s pre-game brownies to settle him down a little on the side lines.
2. Distribute it to Soldier Field patrons and stage a historic re-enactment of the “Fog Bowl”.

and

1. Give Jay Cutler the “munchies” and laugh while he tries to find where you hid his insulin.

Game Comments: Bears at Broncos

Defense

  1. Daryl Johnston made the excellent point that the Bears needed to keep Tim Tebow from rolling to his left. They had only limited success.
  2. It was very evident that the Bears were determined to limit the run. Lots of guys near the line of scrimmage. Some man coverage with a deep safety.
  3. There were a lot of camera shots of Julius Peppers early that left me wondering if his knee wasn’t bothering him more than in previous weeks.
  4. I’m not entirely sure why the Bears didn’t have someone spying Tebow. He hurts you badly on the ground. Perhaps it was because they needed everyone in position to defend the option, including Brian Ulacher. Either he or Lance Briggs would have ordinarily drawn the duty. Johnston suggested late in the game that Craig Steltz may have been doing a little of it.
  5. I’ll say this. As good as he runs, Tebow does not throw the ball well consistently. He winds up like a top and he’s not accurate much of the time.
  6. As both Tony Siragusa and Johnston pointed out, the Bears defense just lost all aggressiveness as the first half wore on. The Bears would run a stunt or rush Tebow and he would run right by them. They were worried about their responsibilities on the option and about Willis McGahee. Too much thinking and not enough reacting. They did better in the second half but they still weren’t always as aggressive as usual.
  7. The Broncos offense is an interesting problem. The Bears basically were successful because of their speed to the ball. Without it, they would have been in some trouble.
  8. Give the Bears credit for playing with discipline, as well (penalties aside).
  9. I’m guessing the long Bears offensive drive in the third quarter was welcome not just because it resulted in a touchdown but because it gave the Bears defense a rest in the thin air.
  10. The Bears played very, very soft coverage in the fourth quarter. They had obviously watched the tape of how the Broncos were pulling off these miracles in previous games. The big play wan’t gong to happen.

Offense

  1. Caleb Hanie rolled out for his first pass. That was different.
  2. The Broncos weren’t stacking the box against the run early on first down against run personnel, apparently believing they could stop the Bears without doing so. Personally, I thought it was a mistake. There’s no reason not to try to pressure Hanie and make him beat you through the air.
  3. As you might expect, the Bears took the gift and got started running the ball.
  4. Good thing as Hanie was, once again, less than impressive. His accuracy was again suspect as even the screen passes were high (again).
  5. The Broncos were blitzing reasonably effectively on obvious passing downs, particularly second down. The offensive line was having a tough time with pass protection and Hanie didn’t help by holding the ball too long (again).
  6. The Bears played it conservative early, apparently choosing to rely on the defense. They didn’t go for it on fourth and one on the first possession and chose to run on 3rd and about 17 on the second. The tone was set.
  7. As you might expect, the Broncos eventually came to the realization that the Bears weren’t going to beat them through the air. They stacked the box and crowded the line in the second half, exactly like they should have from the beginning.
  8. To the Bears credit, they still ran the ball reasonably well. The line did a reasonable job of run blocking to my mind. It’s tough sledding when there’s zero fear of the pass.
  9. The wide receivers were also having a tough time but it looked to me like they was separation there on occasion. They weren’t awful. Hanie just wasn’t hitting them in the short windows they were open.
  10. As often as I’ve ridden Roy Williams for his drops, credit him with a great catch with 2:00 left in the third quarter on third down.
  11. Johnston once again made the excellent point in the third quarter that the Bears needed to keep using Kahlil Bell. He withdrew the comment later but I thought he was right. Bell’s more versatile and he’s a better receiver. Marion Barber did well (until the fourth quarter) but I think he’s more suited to the change of pace back role. Perhaps they should be splitting the carries more evenly.

Miscellaneous

  1. Kenny Albert, Johnston, Siragusa were just excellent. Johnston and Siragusa peppered the broadcast with good comments that the average fan like myself might not have otherwise picked up. It was a pleasure.
  2. Wonderful job blocking the field goal in the second quarter. Peppers blocked it but give the whole unit credit for getting a good deal of penetration.
  3. Robbie Gould could have hit that field goal at the end of the third quarter from a lot farther out than 57 yards. It wasn’t close.
  4. Punt coverage was outstanding.
  5. Hanie was, once again, not helped by his supporting cast as Devin Hester came out and dropped the first pass to him. The Bears were fortunate that the Broncos were even worse, dropping balls all over the field.
  6. Personal fouls on the Bears defense in the first half kept Broncos drives going early. You can’t take shots on quarterbacks high or low. Guys on defense have to play with control or the team will pay.
  7. The penalties weren’t limited to the defense. In a game like this one, every one was damaging and special teams and offense contributed their fair share. Lance Lewis had another poor game with some false starts, making me miss Gabe Carimi more than I thought I would at this point.
  8. Hester had a face mask at a bad time late in the third quarter. Can’t run the ball when you are putting yourself in those downs and distances.
  9. Wonderful interception on the sideline by Charles Tillman in the first quarter. Tebow held the ball too long once all game and the Steltz caused him to fumble the ball.
  10. The Bears almost stayed alive in the playoff race because of their defensive speed and discipline. But if you’re going to run the ball offensively and survive that way, then the mistakes have to go completely away. No penalties, no drops, no Barber brain cramps, no margin for error. It’s a tough way to live.

Charles Barkley Begs for Sanity and Other Points of View

Bears

“We’re an athletic defense … we have a pretty good front,” [Brian] Urlacher said. “We run to the football. Hopefully we get takeaways, which we haven’t done in the last couple of weeks. Just run to the football and do what we do.”

The Bears do have the kind of discipline it takes to stay in their gaps and stop this kind of offense when they’re playing well against the run – which they have not always done this year.  But the real problem is that plenty of teams have stopped the Broncos this year only to have them hang around and win at the end.  The defense has to lay a complete game and they are gong to need some offense to win.

“I want to make a personal plea to Lance Briggs, Brian Urlacher, Mr. [Julius] Peppers, please stop the madness,” Barkley said Friday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “I’m just so tired … I like Tim Tebow. He seems like a good kid, and I wish him success, but I am Tebowed out. So this is my personal plea for you three guys, please stop this madness.”

  • Jeff Dickerson at ESPNChicago.com points out that the Broncos like to run out of a three receiver set. It will be interesting to see if the Bears choose to keep linebacker Nick Roach in the game in those situations instead of going to the nickel. The guess here is that they confident in their nickel backs stopping the run.
  • Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune makes the point that the Bears are less likely to pass to the running back with Matt Forte out. That’s true. But I was puzzled by the lack of a screen game against the Chiefs. I’m wondering if offensive coordinator Mike Martz has lost confidence in Caleb Hanie‘s ability to execute it after having one intercepted against the Oakland Raiders two weeks ago.
  • Pompei also points out that the Bears are being penalized a lot but that the penalties are even for and against the Bears. I never doubted whether there was a bias against the Bears but I do think the officiating has been especially bad this year. I’m starting to wonder if adding another official to the crew might not be a bad idea.
  • And Pompei also writes about the way to game plan against the Broncos:

“The best way to play [Tim Tebow] is with a zone defense so all eyes are on him. Eight in the box is recommended. Try to force him to throw to beat you. Gap discipline is important.”

  • Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune writes an article about how safety Craig Steltz has to step up with Major Wright suffering a sprained shoulder. Meanwhile we’re all left to wonder what happened to Brandon Merriweather (again).
  • Pompei also points out that the upcoming draft will be a good one for defensive ends for The National Football Post. The Bears might be thinking in the direction of the defensive line (again). The Bears need another end even if you don’t account for the fact that none of the current defensive linemen has taken full advantage of the presence of Julius Peppers.
  • For those of you who enjoy these things:

Elsewhere

  • The Browns are under fire for allegedly letting  quarterback Colt McCoy play with a concussion.  This may be one to keep an eye on.  It sounds like the team may be outright lying.
  • Lions head coach Jim Schwartz continues to enable Ndamukong Suh. Via ESPN‘s NFC North blogger Kevin Seifert:

“‘The fact that he was in a fender-bender?’ Schwartz said. ‘How guys drive and things like that … let’s worry about him on the field. Ndamukong is a hard-working guy and he hasn’t had any kind of issues with the law, including this one. Let’s worry about him on the field and get him back playing well. He’s under a microscope, but that’s too much of a microscope.”

Here’s the description of the “fender bender”:

“‘When the light turned green, he floored it,’ one of the passengers told KGW-TV. ‘I just remember going so fast and it was violent, and just getting thrown around like rag dolls.'”

Suh eventually hit a tree.  Afterwards he told one passenger who requested medical attention that “she was fine”. She left and walked down the street to get her husband to take her to the hospital.

“Put on the tape and watch (Lions DT) Ndamukong Suh get blocked one-on-one all game and you show me where he is the dominant player he has been made out to be (by the media). I’ve never seen a bigger farce. I thought he was overrated coming out of college, and he has done nothing to change my mind. He’s nothing but a bunch of hot air, and I think people are starting to come around to it.”

  • Pompei also makes the point for the Chicago Tribune that the injuries around the league are a “strong argument against an 18 game season”.
  • And Pompei quotes Titan’s head coach Mike Munchak on running back Chris Johnson for The National Football Post. Bear fans might want to pay attention to this one because it might be relevant if Matt Forte decides to hold out after being franchised next year:

“Missing camp, it definitely affected him,” he said. “We knew it would. We just didn’t know how much. Is that the only reason we weren’t running well? No. But to be a running back in this league, you have to be in a certain kind of condition and shape, have a certain spring in your legs.”

“Usually at this time of the year, there is more clarity about who will be in the Super Bowl. Yeah, Green Bay is undefeated, but if they land on a field where they can’t throw the ball and they have to play power football, I’m not so sure they are the best team in the NFC. And they are looking at a cold home field. The Packers look a lot like the Patriots did when they ran the table – a loss might be good for them right now. I think they need to be humbled.”

One Final Thought

Fred Mitchell at the Chicago Tribune summarizes the situation in Chicago:

“After the last two losses, Bears players and coaches may have more confidence in themselves right now than their fans.”

Yeah, pretty much.

Game Comments: Chiefs at Bears

Defense

  1. The Chiefs came out running against the Bears defense with a couple short passes. This was apparently to take the pressure off of KC quarterback Tyler Palko. They were probably also anticipating a defensive game with Caleb Hanie at quarterback for the Bears.
  2. Palko came out throwing easy throws accurately.
  3. This was a really good game for the defensive line. Julius Peppers was a beast on the pass rush.
  4. The Bears supplemented the pass rush with some well timed blitzes but otherwise they were, once again, generally bland.
  5. Palko avoided a pretty good rush by simply running away from it. He’s very mobile.
  6. I was surprised to see Kyle Orton with Palko not doing too bad to my eye. It was a shame to see him hurt after only one play.
  7. Dwayne Bowe always seemed to be a step ahead of the Bears defense. He’s big and he can run after the catch and he always seemed to get just enough yardage to get that critical first down.
  8. KC did a really good job of running the ball on the Bears defense in the third quarter as Bears pass rushers eager to get to Palko ran right by the running backs. Some really good play calling there.
  9. Bear defensive backs were having a terrible time getting off blocks on the Kansas City wide receiver screens. They’ve got to be stronger than that.

Offense

  1. It didn’t take long for Kansas CIty to bring that safety up into the box to stop Matt Forte. As usual, the Bears opponent wanted to make the Bears beat them through the air. First possession – three and out.
  2. Kansas City’s defensive backs dominated the Bears receivers with good coverage.
  3. Caleb Hanie came out unable to complete even some of the short passes that Mike Martz called to get him started. His accuracy apparently did not get better in his second week wth the starters. He was missing opportunity after opportunity to hit wide open receivers on broken coverages.
  4. Thank you Matt Spaeth for that wiff on the block that got Matt Forte hurt.
  5. Caleb Hanie has to get rid of the ball. I know the Bears receivers were well covered most of the time but he’d have had more success if he threw with some anticipation to a spot like the offense calls for him to do.
  6. KC did a good job of keeping Hanie in the pocket with a controlled, disciplined pass rush.
  7. Glad to see Marion Barber running so well again.
  8. The offensive line struggled to block for the run on occasion when they were allowing too much penetration. The Chiefs were crashing line of scrimmage against the run.
  9. Caleb Hanie cannot throw a jump ball with Johnny Knox as the receiver. This was a lesson Jay Cutler learned his first year (with Hanie watching). Interception.
  10. The pass protection was really poor in the second half. Mike Martz really needed to call some screens and draws. Running the ball with some delayed handoffs like Kansas City did to slow down the Bear pass rush would have been a good way to do it.
  11. In fairness, giving Hanie max protection in the fourth quarter did help. It might not be a cooincidence that Hanie’s passing improved at that point as well.
  12. I’m not entirely sure why Devin Hester ended up being Hanie’s primary target.

Miscellaneous

  1. Like the Bears, Kevin Harlan was off his game. Warning that a punt almost hit Jalil Brown again was, perhaps, unnecessary given that KC kicked it. Getting Dom DeCicco mixed up with Patrick Trahan wasn’t a high point for him. It could be because we’ve been spoiled with the best color men the NFL has to offer this year but Solomon Wilcots didn’t seem to have much of any significance to say.
  2. The Chiefs started off the special teams battle the right way with a touched punt that resulted in a turnover to the Bears.The Bears fake field goal was pretty sick. Yellow flags flew everywhere against the Bears special teams. KC kicked the ball off out of bounds midway through the third quarter. Devin Hester dropped a fair catch. Hester had a nice return at the beginning of the second quarter but otherwise special teams were just a comedy of errors. A really bad comedy.
  3. Kansas CIty got an interception late midway though the third quarter that just killed the Bears. I thought that’s what the Bears were supposed to be doing. Instead Charles Tillman missed an interception in the second possession of the first quarter. Tim Jennings dropped one as well.
  4. The penalty on Bowman for interference with a punt reception in the first quarter was bogus. Marion Barber sure looked to me like he was close enough to the line of scimmage to avaid a penalty on the stolen touchdown in the second quarter. A bogus defensive holding call on Tillman kept a critical drive going in the third quarter that led to a field goal. The referees hurt the Bears as much as the Chiefs did.
  5. There weren’t many drops but it figures that the one critical one that resulted in an interception would come from Roy Williams. Its come to be expected.
  6. I hope someone explains why the Bears called timeout in the second quarter immediately after one by Kansas City.
  7. Late in the third quarter down 10-3. The Bears had first and goal from inside the ten. Two Hanie sacks on some terrible pass protection later, Robbie Gould missed the 42 yard field goal.
    They aren’t a playoff team.
  8. Television commercial of the year: Allstate mayhem commercial with the “300 lb streaker painted blue and completely naked apart from the cleats”. Made me smile on a miserable day.

Blaming the Play Caller Is the Easy Way Out and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune give his perspective on the state of Caleb Hanie by drawing this interesting comparison:

You can count on Lovie Smith to say one thing at the start of the preseason and the regular season: A team usually makes its biggest improvements from Game 1 to Game 2. The Bears will be taking that approach into Sunday’s game against the Chiefs, hoping Caleb Hanie will make strides after completing 50 percent of his passes and being intercepted three times.

End Chauncey Davis, added two weeks ago, got into the mix and likely made an impression with four tackles. That third end position is wide open for someone who wants to grab it, and as this loss showed, the Bears aren’t good enough on defense just yet to overcome errors on offense.

The guess here is [Kyle] Orton will be the man. Kansas City (4-7) claimed him for a reason and the Chiefs don’t have any margin for error now that they are three games behind the Raiders.

  • When the Bears let Jake Laptad go as the long snapper after not one practice, I assumed he must have been really bad. Not so according to Biggs:

“There weren’t any snaps bounced back to holder Adam Podlesh in practice. Laptad didn’t sail any snaps over the head of Podlesh on punts in practice. It just wasn’t what special teams coordinator Dave Toub, who had worked with Laptad during a two-week stint on the practice squad in October, wanted.”

“Why was Laptad let go?

“’Off the mark,’ Toub said. ‘He snaps so fast, he has such zip on the ball if it’s off the mark and it gets by you, you’re in trouble. He’s got a lot of talent. He’s just not ready. If he really wants to work at it and get better, he could be a snapper in the NFL. But he’s got to improve.'”

  • I finished reading this article on the Oakland game from Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune and I wondered if the Bears had actually lost.
  • Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune makes a good point:

“[Defensive coordinator Rod] Marinelli also simplified the game by not using as many stunts.

“‘It was all about lining up and just beating the man across from you,’ [defensive end Israel] Idonije said. ‘We just went out there and got after it.'”

I thought they simplified the game plan in all aspects, not just with the lack of stunts.  The Bears played a surprising vanilla cover two a good portion of the game.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  On the one hand it worked.  ON the other hand I don’t think its always going to work.  the Bears need to disguise their coverages every once in a while and I think it was a noticeable improvement when they started to do it last year.

“Quick, someone tell Hanie that late, high and wide over the middle is no way to go through the NFL.”

I think Hanie can and probably will improve everything else.  But I’m not sure how much his accuracy is going to improve this week.

  • On what I would say is a note related to the Ndamukong Suh incident Thursday, we have this from Pro Football Weekly‘s Audibles:

“If you look at what happened to the Lions against the Bears, the crazy thing about it is — the Lions moved the ball. They had a good plan. They just turned it over too much. And the wind was a major factor. I was wondering how the Bears could be so good — the defense did some good things, but watch the ball hang on the interception returns. Even the kick to (Devin) Hester that was returned, the wind took that ball right into his hands.”

“Lovie (Smith) has not been a good coach for the Chicago Bears; he has been a great coach — just the way he handles the team. He has the ability to get players to play hard for him. They trust him. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly why, but they do.”

“(Bears DE Israel) Idonije is a beast. The Bears’ defense is so good, they run the football well — they can get by without a star at quarterback.”

Elsewhere

“[Eagles head coach] Andy Reid has such a mess on his hands. People are talking about him being fired? I want to know — is he going to walk away? I know Juan Castillo was not his first choice as defensive coordinator. I look at the players they have signed. I don’t know if Andy has enough support right now. It looks to me like he is doing everything. I know this — he is one of the best football coaches in the NFL.”

“[DeSean] Jackson — the once dynamic wide receiver who showed flashes of becoming one of the franchise’s greatest at that position — has turned into perhaps the most unreliable target on offense. He dropped a handful of passes [on Sunday] and shied away from contact against the Patriots. His worst offense came when he short-armed a sure-thing touchdown catch because he heard footsteps.

“Amid a contract dispute, Jackson said concern about his health was a factor in his style of play.

“‘Always. Always got to keep your head on a swivel,’ he said.

“Was he worried about his health on that play?

“‘What’d you think?’ he said as he walked away from reporters.”

Sounds like Bernard Berrian syndrome to me.  If I were a GM, I wouldn’t touch this guy with a ten foot pole.  But someone will.  And regret it.

“For their part, [Lion’s head coach Jim] Schwartz and the Lions should have said more [about Suh’s questionable play], sooner, too.

“Schwartz said after the game he didn’t see the incident but that Suh ‘can’t leave any gray area and can’t give an official any reason to’ penalize him or eject him from the game. Suh’s stomp gave the Packers an automatic first down after they had been stopped on third-and-goal, and John Kuhn scored two plays later on a 1-yard run to break open a close game.

“And while he won’t meet with local reporters until Tuesday, Schwartz had an opportunity to denounce the stomp in a Sirius/XM radio interview Friday but chose to talk around it instead, saying ‘if there’s discipline involved in a case like that it will come from the NFL’ and that Suh can’t lose his composure and ‘put his teammates in a bad position.’

“No one is saying Schwartz condones Suh’s stomp. As competitive as he is, that’s never been what Schwartz is about.”

Really?  Then why doesn’t he say so? Why hasn’t he said so already?  Birkett points out that Schwartz “happened to be” the Titan’s defensive coordinator when Albert Haynesworth stomped on the head of Cowboy’s center Andre Gurrode five years ago, implying that its just a coincidence. But by condemning the penalty and not the act itself, despite being given multiple opportunities to do otherwise, Schwartz’s message is the same now as it apparently was then: “Do what you want. Just don’t get caught.”

  • On a related note, we have this Audible from Pro Football Weekly:

“(Lions DT) Ndamukong Suh is so full of (crap). He’s living off where he got drafted. People that think he has played well are scouting off ESPN and watching too many highlights. Yeah, he looks great in flashes against weak sisters. I wouldn’t want him over either one of the guys we have. He is a coward.”

“Someone needs to call out Jon Gruden for hyping all of Bob LaMonte‘s clients. If they are repped by his (own) agent, they are great. Andy Reid is a genius. Mike Martz invented football. Enough is enough. When I watch football on television, I want to hear about the technical aspect — tell me about why the extra tackle is overloaded to one side and how the play was designed. If it didn’t work, call it out. Gruden pumps so much sunshine it’s become unbearable to watch.”

“Coaches hate scouts just like offensive coaches hate defensive coaches. It’s like the Army and the Marines — they are in competition with each other.”

One Final Thought

Fred Mitchell at the Tribune quotes Lovie Smith on the heavily criticized Mike Martz call that resulted in an Oakland interception near the goal line Sunday:

“Asked again if the call was too risky, especially for a young quarterback making his first NFL start, Smith replied:

“’Maybe from (the media) it is. It didn’t work, so of course you are going to get criticized when something doesn’t work. But next time it will.’”

Smith has a point.  Most fans and media members can’t tell you much about the nuts and bolts of playing defensive back or offensive guard.  But almost anyone one with an butt hole and an opinion thinks on some level he’s capable of judging what kind of play should or shouldn’t be called from the comfort of his living room couch.

Sure, looking back on it, the play call doesn’t look great.  And yes, I wish the Bears had run the ball more.  I’ve heard constantly since Sunday about how Martz didn’t protect Hanie.  But its not like Hanie is a rookie.  He’s a veteran back up.  Hindsight is 20-20 but if you put yourself up in the booth and you see the Raiders constantly stacking the box against the run, do you really think Martz asked Hanie to do anything he shouldn’t have been capable of doing?

That’s one of the reasons you ordinarily won’t catch me being too critical of the play calling of an offensive coordinator.  It’s just too easy blame that rather than the execution that we really don’t completely understand.

Game Comments: Bears at Raiders 11/27/11

Offense

  1. The Raiders came out with eight in the box on first down.  No surprise.  As usual you want to force the Bears to throw, especially with the inexperienced Caleb Hanie at quarterback.
  2. The Raiders also took the standard tack of crowding the line and shooting the gaps.  It was effective at stopping the run.  The Bears offensive line really struggled to get it going.  I think its fair to say that from here on out, if the Bears can’t run the ball effectively they aren’t going to win.
  3. Hanie looked OK running the offense when he wasn’t throwing the ball to the other team.  He definitely doesn’t have Jay Cutler’s movement in the pocket but particularly at the beginning offensive coordinator Mike Martz didn’t ask him to do it much.  Most of the passes were short, three step drop backs.  Whenever he was asked to do more, however, he looked to me like he struggled to find the open receiver and get the ball out.
  4. Hanie’s accuracy also suffered some today.  He seemed to struggle particularly with intermediate throws one the middle which were sailing high.  That’s how the second interception came about.
  5. The pass protection wasn’t great today, either.  There were a lot of plays where there were Raiders on top of Hanie very quickly.  Pretty tough to do anything with that.
  6. Marion Barber really looks good running the ball.  I think he’s getting better as the season goes on.

Defense

  1. The Bears came out in the standard cover two.  The Raiders came out ready to shred it and did.
  2. I thought the pressure on Carson Palmer was fine when the line had time to get to him.
  3. Having said that, the Bears clamped down in the red zone as they usually do, forcing field goals until late in the fourth quarter.
  4. The Bears are still giving up too may big plays.  It must be killing Lovie Smith.
  5. I’m really surprised at how vanilla the Bears played it today.  There was very little of the disguise or variation in their defense that we usually see.
  6. Caleb Hanie wasn’t the only quarterback today to miss some throws.  There were some wide open receivers that didn’t get the ball accurately today from Palmer.
  7. The Bears defense looked tired in the fourth quarter.  There’s really no reason for that.  It isn’t like the Raiders dominated time of possession.

Miscellaneous

  1. Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston Tony Siragusa were their usual professional selves.
  2. Special teams weren’t bad but the weren’t special, either.  There were some reasonable returns but penalties ruined them.  Robbie Gould’s 53 yard field goal was great.
  3. Obviously turnovers were the single biggest factor which caused the Bears to lose this game.  Too many of the Raider points came as a result of the Hanie interceptions.  The first pick was trying to do too much.  The second and third were poor throws.  On the other side, Corey Graham got an interception.  The Bears dropped a lot of others.  If they had made half those plays the Bears might well have won this game.
  4. Some of them weren’t exactly what you’d call drops but the Bears wide receivers didn’t exactly themselves with glory today.  There were some balls I thought were catchable where the play wasn’t made.
  5. Too many penalties on special teams.  We never saw the unnecessary roughness call on Tyler Clutz but I don’t think its a stretch to call it “stupid” in that situation.  The Raiders lost a touchdown on a holding penalty.
  6. On Caleb Hanie’s list of his own strengths:  being mobile in the pocket, throwing accurately, getting the ball out quick, protecting the football. I’m not saying Hanie was that awful.  He made some plays and he’s definitely going to get better.  But if these are his strengths, I’d hate to know what he thinks his weaknesses are.

The Exact Moment Jay Cutler Was Injured and Other Points of View

Bears

“The Oakland Raiders’ defense doesn’t distinguish itself in many statistical categories. It’s ranked 24th overall, 25th against the run and 20th against the pass.

“But the Raiders are tied for sixth in the NFL with 28 sacks and feature one of the faster defenses in the league.”

  • Bears runningback Matt Forte had an interesting take on what needs to be done against the Raiders, who will undoubtedly be expecting a heavy dose of the running game. Via Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune:

“‘It always has been on my shoulders,’ said Forte, who rushed for more than 100 yards in four of five games before his recent slump. ‘I don’t think it’s anything new. I just want to continue to be successful and get some more passes out of the backfield. Then they can’t stack the box and we can get the ball out in space.'”

“The protagonist in the book is a legendary sportswriter who uncovered that his home town team’s coach has orchestrated a massive cheating plan to get his team to win the Super Bowl. Well, can he divulge it? Will it fly? Is his evidence right? Will he be sued for libel? And he agonizes over it.

I’m thinking of written a book, too. Its about a legendary writer who blogs in his underwear from his mom’s basement investigates a huge cheerleading scandal. Really, really huge. Like Kelley Brook huge. He’s very dedicated that way.

Right now, Graham ranks fourth in fan voting for the Pro Bowl, causing him to wonder what happened to the Chicago machine.

“They always talk about Chicago is one of the biggest markets but we can’t tell. They ain’t voting for me,” he said. “I have to give them something to vote for. If I go out and make a lot of plays, more people will vote.”

I’m ashamed to say that until I read this quote I had not voted. I did with a ballot at nfl.com. Other notable Bears to con side include Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Charles Tillman, Julius Peppers, Jay Cutler, and Matt Forte. I also voted for a few more who were, let’s just day, questionable choices for people voting without a Bear bias.

“It was a hot topic around the league Friday although the Bears didn’t want to share any strong opinions, less than two weeks after Suh ripped the helmet off quarterback Jay Cutler and avoided discipline.”

“When the play was described to Smith, he shrugged.

“‘Oh really,’ he said. ‘Oh man, I’m sure the league will have something to say about that.’

“A reporter then piped up that’s not always the case with Suh.

“‘Next question,’ Smith responded.”

“If Tice has any regrets about his assistant coach experience, it was his being denied the chance to interview for the Titans offensive coordinator position in the offseason.

“‘You’re always disappointed when you don’t have a chance to better yourself, professionally, and that’s what the interview process is all about,’ he said. “I wanted to do that interview.'”

And I continue to believe that the right thing to do for the Bears would have been to allow it.

  • With the Bears Jay Cutler injured, special teams will have to continue to be strong for the Bears. On that note, every Bear fan can give thanks on this day for arrogance and overconfidence. Again, via Biggs.
  • I’m not always Roy Williams‘ biggest fan. But he certainly is quick with a quote. McClure gets him here on new Bears quarterback Josh McCown, who played with Williams on the Lions:

“Shoot, the most athletic white boy I’ve ever seen in my life.

  • David Haugh at the Chicago Tribune writes a nice article on the things every back up quarterback thrown into the starting role needs to know:

“‘That’s a subtlety a good head coach will manage well,’ [Jim McMahon backup Steve] Fuller recalled over the phone. ‘They didn’t drastically alter the whole system to make me feel like, ‘Oh, God, they’re frightened I’m in there.’ You strike a balance between putting in wrinkles versus completely scaring the crap out of the guy by putting in stuff completely different that would be panicking.'”

“We didn’t blitz much last week, and that could help. There are little things we will have to improve, and we will. The pass rush, it just hasn’t been consistent. You just keep working at it”

I thought the Bears did blitz a lot last week. The problem is that the ball was coming out so fast there was no chance to get to Philip Rivers. If they’re planning on blitzing even more this could be an interesting game.

“Jay Cutler has taken some criticism for not playing through injuries in the past, which is why he should consider wearing a protective walking boot on his thumb.”

Apparently they don’t think much of the Bears chances with Hanie at quarterback:

Elsewhere

“Our current national delusion is the belief that a quarterback whose team scores 17 points (7 as the result of defensive or special teams play) against a New York opponent, but who leads a grinding fourth-quarter game-winning drive, has done something truly exceptional. So there’s a (yawn) quarterback controversy brewing in Philadelphia, the City of Backup Quarterback-ly Love. If Michael Vick (ribs) is healthy, he will start over Vince Young, though locals are clamoring for Young, whose three early-game interceptions were apparently not signs of ineptitude but his flair for the dramatic. Meanwhile, DeSean Jackson’s self-promoting behavior has become so erratic and counterproductive that he is one step from renaming the rest of his season the Torpedo of Touchdowns Tour.”

“The Rex Ryan Experience has always had a risky side. If promises aren’t delivered, words become hollow and credibility suffers. It doesn’t seem to be an act for the long term. When Ryan is gone, sports journalists may miss him most. Dullness is an enemy, particularly on deadline. Fans around New York would miss him, too — if not at first, eventually. But they would never see another like him. You can’t re-create a football coach with his bluster, joy and joshing.”

“Dear Steve Weatherford,
“It has come to my attention that you sometimes punt the football straight into the arms of the league’s most dangerous return men, forcing me to constrict and temporarily hinder blood flow to the brain. This week, you will be facing Darren Sproles, who has five total return touchdowns in his career. Please be advised that if he scores a touchdown as a direct result of one of your punts, I will shut down, then leap through the esophagus to strangle you, leaving you breathless and unemployed faster than you can say ‘Matt Dodge.’
“Sincerely,
“Tom Coughlin’s Pulmonary Artery.”

  • The Sports Pickle gives us visual evidence that Ndamukong Suh might be a dirty player:

One Final Thought

Shortly after I putting up my own post connecting the behavior of the Lions as a team with that of head coach Jim Schwartz, this article from Jason Cole at Yahoo! Sports came to my attention:

“This all comes back to Schwartz. He has done much to turn the Lions around, starting with the excitement of a 5-0 start. However, in the moments after Detroit’s first loss on Oct. 16 against San Francisco at home, Schwartz also lost his cool. After a bad exchange with counterpart Jim Harbaugh, Schwartz lost control and chased Harbaugh down the field.

“In some respects, it was comical. At the same time, it probably warranted a fine. Now, weeks later, the Lions are playing like a team that doesn’t know how to handle tough situations. What a shocker. Players take their cues from the people in charge.”

The whole article is worth a read.

The “Lions organization” has released a statement condemning Suh’s actions. But as Michael David Smith at profootballtalk.com points out no one really knows who that means. Specifically, its notable that two days after the incident other than a weak “I haven’t seen the replay but we can’t afford the penalty” we’ve heard nothing from Schwartz, whose constant and vehement defense of Suh over the course of the season in the face of such dirty play enabled the behavior to the point that Thursday’s incident was inevitable. If Schwartz doesn’t come out and strongly put his foot down on Suh this time, the statement from the “organization” will be virtually meaningless.

Suh’s Behavior Is a Simple Reflection of His Coach’s Personality

I was not surprised, by what I saw on my screen yesterday from Ndamukong Suh when he repeatedly banged the head of Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith into the ground three times and then stomped on him. The debate has been raging for months about whether he is a dirty player or not. But the key to this whole affair was understanding that the problem in Detroit goes way beyond Suh or any player. Michael Rosenberg at the Detroit Free Press agrees as he puts the Lions loss in perspective:

“The worst part? This wasn’t surprising. You could see it coming for two years. And it’s fair to ask: If the Lions had told Suh to reel it in earlier, instead of constantly defending him, would he have learned from his mistakes by now?”

Exactly. Specifically, if you want to know why Suh did what he did and reacted afterwards as he did, you need only look at Lions head coach Jim Schwartz as put very well by John Mullin at CSNChicago.com:

“The consensus is becoming it couldn’t happen to a more fitting bunch, given the enabling conduct of coach Jim Schwartz who, after the loss to the Bears, adamantly defended Detroit players’ conduct that was subsequently fined by the NFL.”

Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune quotes Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rogers who puts the difference between themselves and the Lions bluntly:

“Asked about not retaliating, Rodgers said, ‘Well, that’s just the way we’re coached.'”

I haven’t finished scanning all of the quotes but its not a surprise that one of the few players I’ve read who came out to make a firm comment on the situation played under Lovie Smith:

“‘I don’t want to put anything on anyone, but we can’t have that,’ Bear turned Lion Rashied Davis said. ‘It’s not Suh’s fault we lost the game. We lost this game as a team. But we can’t get that penalty.'”

But to really understand the problem, you have to recognize that it isn’t restricted to Suh. The entire Lions team is completely undisciplined and its costing them games. ESPN‘s NFC North blogger, Kevin Seifert quotes Packers guard T.J. Lang after this one:

“[Suh has] been getting dumb penalties all year. That’s something we talked about all week: They were probably going to do something stupid along the way. They’ve done it in almost every game.”

They certainly did here. Penalty flags flew all over the field this game as the Lions repeatedly shot themselves in the foot. Can such undisciplined play be surprising when the Lion’s are coached by Schwartz, a man who completely lost control after a loss to the 49ers? Who, after an admittedly overly enthusiastic handshake and slap on the back after the game, ran after 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh down the field, ultimately climbing over people to get at him in a reasonable imitation of former Oregon runningback LeGarrette Blount?

So you think, “Well, now at least Suh understands the problem,” right? “He’s now going to stand up and take responsibility,” right? Think again. From Seifert:

“What I did was remove myself from the situation in the best way I felt, me being held down in the situation I was in. And further, my intentions were not to kick anybody, as I did not, removing myself as you see, I’m walking away from the situation and with that I apologize to my teammates and my fans and my coaches for putting myself in the position to be misinterpreted and taken out of the game.”

No one who saw the replay of this incident could possibly believe that Suh didn’t kick out at Dietrich-Smith on the ground. The truth is that Suh got blocked to the ground and didn’t like it.

Why would Suh react like this? We need only look at Schwartz’s response to the 49ers incident where he lost a game and completely lost his temper (via Bob Wojnowski at The Detroit News):

“Let me just say this. There’s a lot more to it than the backslap. And I’m gonna do whatever I can to continue to fight for the city of Detroit and for the Detroit Lions. I reacted and I wasn’t worried about how it was going to look. I don’t really pay much attention to other people. I’m sort of arrogant that way.”

Schwartz wasn’t thinking about the city of Detroit any more than Suh was “walking away from the situation” rather than kicking Evan Dietrich-Smith. The explanation is a weak attempt to dodge a responsibility where, regardless of Harbaugh’s behavior, Schwartz was obviously wrong. Like coach like player.

But even more important, Jim Schwartz has got to understand something if he wants to last as the coach of the Lions. His players, especially his young players like Suh, are always, always looking to him as an example of how to act. Every team in every walk of life to at least some extent reflects the personality of the person at its head. Its the nature of leadership. And his team will never play with the discipline and accountability necessary to win as long as he doesn’t display it himself.

The Mind of Caleb Hanie from the Outside Looking In

I’m not always a big fan of the Chicago Tribune‘s David Haugh. But he’s right on point when he says that the moment is unlikely to overwhelm new Bears starting quarterback Caleb Hanie on Sunday. Confidence is not his problem. He’s brimming with that to the point of arrogance. Via Brad Biggs, also at the Tribune:

“‘If you don’t have that confidence, there’s no way you’re going to be the next big thing,’ [Hanie] said. ‘I have to play with confidence and see where it leads, take it week to week.'”

Absolutely right.

As long as that confidence is tempered with maturity. And its this aspect of Hanie’s personality that worries me just a little bit. For instance, here is offensive coordinator Mike Martz on why he has felt the need to coach Hanie extremely hard since he’s been here:

“You have to stress him and press him a little bit, get him out of his comfort zone so he can deal with some of the emotional ups and downs that come with being a starter in the league. Kind of callous him up a little bit.”

Dealing less emotionally and more stably with situations which we meet every day is something all adults go through as they mature. I watched it happen in my parents and I feel it happening to me more every year. With Hanie, it isn’t just about growth as a quarterback. Martz has had to take on the more difficult task of trying to accelerate his growth as a person. And if he’s been extra critical of Hanie and if he’s constantly tempering his compliments for him in his public comments, its probably because Hanie isn’t the kind of person who is likely to be as critical of himself. It is with this in mind that I read this quote from Hanie via Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times on his new role as the starting quarterback:

“‘I feel like we’re pretty similar,’ Hanie said when asked how similar his game is Cutler’s. ‘Our offense is built around being mobile in the pocket and making accurate throws and getting the ball out quick, while … protecting the football. So that plays to my strengths.'”

Really?

First, though Hanie is definitely mobile outside the pocket, I’ve seen no evidence in his limited playing time that he’s mobile inside the pocket. Those are two completely different things with the latter almost being more a question of instinct and experience than athletic ability. As for “getting the ball out quick”, his problems with Martz during the preseason probably had a lot to do with the fact that he wasn’t doing this. And as Martz felt the need to remind both us and Hanie in his public comments over the summer, Hanie certainly didn’t “protect the football” during the playoff loss to the Packers last year.

I don’t know Caleb Hanie, we haven’t haven’t heard him talk enough to make firm judgments and we’ve barely seen him play outside of preseason games. But this isn’t the first time I’ve wondered over the last four years if Hanie sees himself realistically. The above didn’t sound like a list of strengths to me. It sounded like a list of things he’s needed to improve on. Let’s hope he’s had the proper mindset since training camp to allow him to do so.

Quick Game Comments: Chargers at Bears

Offense

  1. The Chargers didn’t mess around and put eight in the box on first down immediately. No surprise. They seem to like playing single coverage and you definitely want to make the Bears beat you through the air.
  2. That didn’t stop the Bears from trying to run. They obviously thought they could run on the Chargers anyway given their reputation as a poor run defense.
  3. The Chargers were also keying on Matt Forte. Again, good move. Even when he’s catching passes he accounts for an enormous amount of the Bears offense.
  4. Forte wasn’t running particularly well today. It didn’t look to me like he was running with his usual degree of patience.
  5. I thought Cutler had decent time to throw. Of course, as usual, it helps that he’s mobile enough to get himself out of trouble.
  6. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms made a point of saying that Marion Barber looked fast in practice. He certainly looked good while he was in.
  7. That injury to Chris Spencer would have really hurt. The Bears offensive line, which wasn’t a strength to begin with, was very close to being officially decimated by injuries.
  8. How nice was it to see Johnny Knox adjusting so well to the football, today? Nice work.
  9. Roy Williams also played a good game after his usual dropped pass.
  10. Something tells me this team misses former defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who took the head coaching job in Carolina. The defense doesn’t look like its playing with the same intensity.

Defense

  1. The Bears gave up some big plays, something that had to be disappointing to Lovie Smith and Rod Marinelli.
  2. The Bears were keeping a lot of guys near the line of scrimmage but the Chargers ran very effectively with some shifty cut back runs. They got the linebackers to move out of their gaps on occasion. I thought the Bears did better in the second half.
  3. The misdirection also hurt the Bears in pass defense as the Chargers seemed to frequently suck players to the middle, then throw outside into a lot of space. The screen game was working well, too. Basically, they were using the Bears aggression against them.
  4. The Chargers seem to like to use Mike Tolbert as a receiver on third down. You wouldn’t think about such a big round man having such good hands. I guess once you get him the ball and let him get rolling he’s tough to stop short of the marker.
  5. Late in the first half the Bears were getting burned for big plays by blitzing the Chargers. I’m surprised. That isn’t typical of the way the Bears play defense.
  6. Related to 5, Charles Tillman was drawing the single coverage assignment against the Chargers best receivers. He was out matched and, really, it wasn’t his fault. Phillip Rivers was getting rid of the ball quicker than the blitz could get there and unless you’ve got Darrelle Revis out there, you’ve got to give help on guys like Vincent Jackson. Single high safety just isn’t enough.

Miscellaneous

  1. Though I alway prefer noon games (and absolutely despise night games), one advantage to later games is that you almost always get really good announcers. Today was no exception. Nantz and Simms were sharp. I thought Simms, in particular made a good point about the benefits of keeping Jay Cutler in the pocket. On the negative side, Simms made the point that Devin Hester couldn’t jump up over the cross bar and goal tend on the missed Chargers field goal at the end of the first half but failed to point out that, had Hester caught the ball short, he could have returned it. That is, of course, why he jumped up to try to get it.
  2. I think the Bears came out flat. San Diego seemed to be playing at a different speed at times.
  3. Roy Williams dropped a long pass early but otherwise I didn’t see anything too awful bad out there in this respect.
  4. The Bears had some penalties that hurt them today. Two of the Devin Hester returns were called back for holding penalties.
  5. What is the deal with Earl Bennett and those orange shoes? $20,000 for a lark? I can’t believe it.
  6. Special teams had a good game. Adam Podlesh had a couple good punts. The San Diego punter, Mike Scifres, hit some line drives to Devin Hester and he took advantage (though the penalties limited them). Kickoff coverage wasn’t awful but should have been better. I can’t believe they ran a fake punt with two minutes left up by eleven. Why?
  7. Rivers threw a couple bad interceptions in the fourth quarter but up to that point, he was solid. I think he was just pressing at a time when you could argue that some risks were called for. The Bears recovery of a fumble in the third quarter was a big play. The Cutler interception in the fourth quarter was just one of those things. The receiver slips and that’s the way it goes.
  8. Nice to hear Bear fans making some noise on occasion during this game. I’m thinking of first and ten from the sixteen in the fourth quarter.
  9. I think everyone knows the saying that most games are lost by the loser than won by the winner. I’m happy to say that was not the case today. The Chargers weren’t turning the ball over right and left. There weren’t a lot of penalties. The receivers weren’t dropping the ball all over the field. Their quarterback played reasonably well (desperation interceptions aside). I don’t get to say this often but I thought the Bears ran up against a reasonably good team that played well and just played better. Wonderful game.