Some thoughts on last Sundays game, while I still remember a few things about it:

• Would have wrote this earlier, but was gone all week visiting the in-laws w/o internet access.  You never realize how much you miss something until it’s gone.
• I do remember last weeks game was cold.  Not so much the temperature, but the wind was just brutal.
• Wow - something resembling a running game.  Haven’t seen that all year.
• That first drive, even if it ended w/ only a field goal, was the best thing about the game.  It took about 10 1/2 minutes of the clock in pretty much real time.  For those of us in the stands, that was just great.
• If you needed any proof as to which is the better beer, Miller Lite seemed to freeze at least twice as fast as Blue Moon.
• This may have been the best game plan I saw Ron Turner call.  Not so much that is was varied and whatnot - overall, they stayed w/ the run - but once they established that, they also threw in some passes when the Packers didn’t expect it, and it worked well.
• Too bad Muhammad can’t catch worth a damn.  Game might have been over at halftime instead of early in the fourth.
• For a team that plays in the ‘Frozen Tundra’, the Packers looked like they wanted no part of being out in that weather.  Sort of like Atlanta during that Sunday Night game two seasons ago when Grossman came back.
• The defense finally played a good game.  Yes, they bent, but only broke the one time on Grants long TD run.  And they grabbed some timely turnovers.
• Another great week by special teams.  Two blocks?  Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen that.  It seemed that the Packers were ’so’ concerned of what they were going to do with the ball with Hester waiting to return it that if the snap wasn’t perfect, it allowed the block team enough time to get to the punter.  Between the two blocks and the 9-yard punt, Hester did his job w/o even touching the ball.
• Tried to sell the tickets and couldn’t.  While I’m glad we got to see what will probably be their best game of the season, it would have been nice to snag some money off of some Green Bay fans and have them watch that in person.  That would have been nice.
• One more game.  Not that excited to go, but it’s the last chance to have some pretty decent football food, have some Blue Moon out of a tap, and see some live football.
• Finally, if this overal miserable season has done nothing else, perhaps it’ll give the Bears a few more Noon starts next season.  I hate 3:15 and evening games in person.

Looking forward to the offseason…..

Some thougths on last nights game, mostly because I feel the obligation to do so…

• There’s not a team in the league I think the Bears would be favored to beat right now.  At home.
• Given that, it’s no suprise we can’t unload our tickets for the next two weeks.  At least the food and beer in the club are good.  But I see leaving those games quite early.  If the Packers game isn’t ‘over’ by halftime, I’ll be shocked.
• I think Orton is getting a bit of a raw deal over last nights game.  Given how long it’s been since he played, I don’t think he did a horrible job.  I do, however, think Ron Turner continues to be the worst OC in the league, and the day he leaves town can’t come too soon.
• Although, I do have to wonder - the Bears have a habit of having the worst OC in the league at any given time.  Turner.  Shoop.  Crowton.  It might just be that as good as Angelo is at putting together a defense, he’s as bad at putting together an offense.
• I also think Lovie is getting a bit of a raw deal this year.  No, this hasn’t been his best year.  But he’s done a great job as HC since coming aboard up until this year, so I’m not going to start wishing for him to leave yet.
• That being said, this fascination with giving Wolfe an automatic series no matter what the situation is each game (with this weeks series coming when the Bears were pinned at their own 3, and Wolfe being about 1/8th the size of the Vikings front four) has to stop, and stop now.
• Also, for his constant harping of ‘playing the players who give us the best chance to win the game’, how in the world is Fred Miller still on the field?  Honestly - he’s the worst offensive lineman in the league - and, of course, the most overpaid.  And I’d say that if he were making $25 a game and actually somehow had a contract that added to the cap amount.
• Any other offense in this league would have won that game last night with the constant outstanding field position they were given.  It’s too bad that we don’t have any other offense in the league.
• The defense actually played a pretty good game.  Urlacher played like the pro-bowler he is.  Vasher showed how much he has been missed this year.  And there were really only three real bad plays I can think of - the 18 missed tackles on the play where one of the Vikings recievers took a pass and ran 60 yards to the 1 yard line (props to Tillman for chasing him down and just keeping him out of the end zone), and the touchdown/2-pt conversion combination towards the end of the game.  They certainly gave this team a chance to win.
• At least the Orton interception to end the game keeps the Bears from becoming only the second team to lose a game when winning the turnover battle 4-0 since 1970.  The other team was, of course, also the Bears when the Giants were in town.  Oddly, the Bears were also the last team to do this back in 1970.  Seems having a sucky offense is just par for the course around here.
• Special teams - meh.  Hester did a decent job most of the time - although here’s a hint for you - NO ONE is going to buy you faking a reverse on a kick return.  No one.
• I also like that the ball was thrown Hester’s way more this game.  He does, however, need to learn how to block on plays the ball doesn’t come his way, and run patterns where he may not be the primary receiver.
• It’s too bad Hester isn’t as good a receiver in real life as he is in Madden ‘08, where he’s really the best receiver on the team.
• Well, I think that about covers my obligation.  I fully expect this Sunday to be a blowout of epic proportions, and to be heading home sometime in the fourth quarter.  At least it’s finally a noon start, so I can get home in time to see the last half of the afternoon games, and the Sunday night game.

Here’s hoping to a better 2008 season.

Some thoughts on last nights ‘now they’re out of the playoffs, not like they had a chance anyway’ Bears debacle game:

• I completely missed the fist five minutes of the game.  Figuring that, like Sunday and Monday night games the game, although slated to start at 7:00 (TV time) wouldn’t start until closer to 7:30, was busy rocking out to Rock Band, so didn’t join the game until Grossman had been injured.
• Too bad Grossman got hurt - I think he would have done a much better job than Griese did - and I would have said that even before Brian stunk up the joint.
• If Grossman is out for the year (haven’t heard one way or another yet), I hope he comes back next year - even if it’s a one year, incentive-laden contract (which I’d guess it at least be incentive laden, and probably not real long term).  Griese can go ahead and move on to another team.
• After seeing Griese run the show quite a bit this year, I can see why he hasn’t lasted long on any team he’s been on.
• Also, if Grossman is out for the year, I’d like to see Orton.  He’ll be back next year, so we might as well see what we have - can be be a starter/backup QB, or do we need to bring in another veteran to be that starter/backup, w/ Orton being the 3rd stringer?
• Another thing is also clear - this team needs a running back.  (The other) Peterson is fine as a backup, but you’re not going to win anything w/ him as your feature back.
• Granted, the line doing a better job of opening holes will also help, but for a team that’s always prided itself on running the ball, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a team as bad at running the ball as the Bears are this year.
• Nice to see Hester get the ball a little in the second half.  It’s too bad Griese both a) completely telegraphed his throws, and then b) made lousy passes to Hester late in the first half - he was open.  At least on the first interception.
• Might as well start putting Hester out at WR a lot more to end the season.  Really work him into the offense and see what he can handle.  Putting him out there just for trick plays and/or long bombs just diminished his effectiveness, since the DBs don’t need to worry about quick slants, crossing patterns, hooks, etc.  He’s either going to a) run a reverse (faked or not), b) get an immediate pass and look for broken tackles, or c) go long.  That’s it.
• Defense - once again, had a chance to make a game of it, and failed.  Had a chance to win the game last week, and failed.  This isn’t about giving up a ton of points (though they’ve done that at times this year), but not being able to make the critical stop when the game is on the line.  I don’t know if that can be blamed on the players not executing, or horrible coaching by the new DC.  Or, of course, injuries that force backups into a more prominent role than originally hoped.
• Special teams - meh.  Didn’t stand out one way or the other.  Gave up a block on a Gould FGA, but that’s about all I remember of them.  Outside of kick returns.
• Granted, Hester didn’t break a big one last night.  But if teams keep kicking him the ball - even squibbing it - he will eventually.  If teams want to kick out of bounds and give the ball up at the 40 yard line, that’s fine - although I wish we had an offense that could actually do something about it.
• In fact, until the Bears have an offense that can make a team pay by giving up the ball at the 40, they might as well just kick the ball out of bounds.  Hester is going to score more often on a kick/punt return that the current offense will.
• At this point, the Bears might as well lose out.  Get a high draft pick.  They need all the help they can get this fall.
• Finally, Bryant Gumbel is just flat-out awful as a play-by-play guy.  I have nothing against him personally, but PbP is not his strong suit.  At one point, he called a field goal good that was a couple yards short.  Another, he had Maynard punting to Hester (which would have been an odd thing to see).  Collinsworth is fine.  But for the love of all that is holy, NFL Network - PLEASE put someone else in the booth for play-by-play duties next year.

Some thoughts on last Sundays game, before I forget them all…

• The best the offense looked in years was on the first drive, when the Bears went with the no-huddle.  Why did we then not see this the rest of the game?
• Grossman said during an interview that he likes the no-huddle, that it’s a chance to just get out there and play.  Given that a lot of times, Grossman’s problems seems to be more mental (thinking too much) instead of just playing, why wouldn’t we just play with the no-huddle all game long?
• For a second, given that first drive, I thought Ron Turner had finally gotten a clue.  Then the rest of the game happened, and I realized that was just a mirage.  The day Ron Turner is no longer in charge of this offense is a day that can’t get here soon enough.  Not that the Bears have shown any aptitude for hiring a GOOD offensive coordinator.
• I don’t know if Adrian Peterson is better than Benson, but I do know I don’t worry quite as much with him in there.
• Hester - I love you and all, but you gotta catch that ball, dude.
• Berrian - nice long catch, but you alligator-armed two others.  Those three plays could have made this a completely different game.
• Grossman may have been the best player in the game on Sunday.
• The defense, while seemingly performing better, still stunk up the joint once they had to start making plays.
• The one person who did play well on defense, and really has had a good season all things considered, is Tillman.  Peanut had a great interception in the end-zone that looked like it would save the day.  Too bad the rest of the defense has been horrible this year.
• And yes, that include Briggs.   Not that he’s been awful, but he hasn’t played anywhere near his level last year.  A lot of that blame certainly can be spread on the rest of the defense not playning as well either, but he just hasn’t looked as good this year.  At least Urlacher has his arthritic back.
• Special teams - not a lot to mention about them.  Overall, they did their job fairly well.  However…
• I realize it was windy, but Maynard just didn’t seem to have a great day punting the ball.
• Finally, this loss will hopefully signal the end of any hopes the Bears will make the playoffs (not that they really should have had any before).  While I’ve seen enough of Grossman to be OK w/ a short term, incentive laden contract for next season, I’d also like to see Orton get in the mix w/ the starting unit to see how much he has improved since his last stint as starting QB.  And start boning up on this years draft class, because you guys need a LOT of help.

Go Bears!  Lose out!  Get a top-10 draft pick!!!

Some thoughts on this weekends game while wondering if Shannahan is having second thoughts about kicking to Hester…

• Honestly, it’s probably best for the Bears - long term - to lose out.  But if you’re going to go through the effort of going to the game, they might as well win it.
• Bears offense just couldn’t get going until late.  Fortunately, it wasn’t quite too late.
• I don’t blame Grossman for his one interception.  Those happen on long balls on occasion, and either Berrian slipped or he was pushed out by the defender (we thought it was blatent PI in the stadium).  Either way, at least it stretches the field.
• Olsen - I love ya, man, but you gotta hang on to those balls.
• Including Olsen, seven drops by receivers, if memory serves.  Grossman may or may not be the guy for the future here (it looks more like he won’t, but you can never tell), but he has certainly had help along the way.
• Cedric Benson is out for the season.  Apparantly, got so excited about his big run, he hurt himself.
• Seriously, although I am not a fan at Benson, this may actually cause the Bears to keep him around another year.  I’d rather cut the cords now, but depending on if they resign Briggs, Grossman, and a few others, they may not be able to afford the cap hit by cutting him this off-season.  But I think he’ll be gone as soon as practicality allows.
• Grossman had a beautiful pass to Olsen for a nice touchdown.  Too bad Fred ‘the Human Turnstyle’ Miller brought it back.  Honestly, Miller was the worst player on the field - by far - on Sunday.
• I never thought I’d say this, but St. Clair may be a better option than Miller.
• Defense - eh.  Still not good.  Decent job against the run, but it looks more and more like letting Rivera go was a huge mistake.  Still, I’m willing to give the new guy a second season, as sometimes it just takes awhile for the players to adjust.  Still, if the defense doesn’t improve dramatically next season, he needs to be shown the door.
• Tillman has had another good season overall.  Losing Vasher and Brown has definintely hurt the secondary.  And then, of course, there’s Archuletta.
• Honestly, I could take my father-in-law, put a ball in his hand, and I doubt AA would be able to tackle him.  And no, my father-in-law isn’t dead.  He is, however, 90 (although he moves quite well for a 90-year old).
• Also saw Harris headed for the tunnel at one point late in the game.  Hope it’s nothing serious or, if it is, sit him now for the season.  The Bears aren’t going to do anything this season, so get healthy for next year.  Same goes for Vasher.
• I will say this for the defense this week - two times, they had the ball inside the five, and only got six points out of it.  That’s not bad at all, and certainly made the difference in the game.
• Special teams - this Hester kid is pretty good, right?
• 10 kick returns for TD in about 1 1/2 seasons.  The career records is 13 by Brian Mitchell.  It took him 14 seasons to accumulate those 13 returns.
• Of course, Hester may only end up seeing about 3 more kicks to him the rest of his career.
• And finally, I’d say his 2 TD more than made up for trying to knock down the bouncing ball early on leading to a turnover.
• And his two returns also indirectly led to Tillmans punt block, since Saurbraun (sp?) was trying to kick it out of bounds.  Of course, he ends up angling the punt right at the onrushing Tillman, but Todd wasn’t exactly known for his smart
• Also on special teams - I thought the kick coverage was about as good as it’s been all season.  This looked more like last years special teams - which were special in a good way.
• As for coaching, the one comment I have is this - you have a QB that, for whatever reason, is prone to fumbling, and you call a QB draw for him that isn’t a foot or so away from the goal line?  Seriously, how stupid is that?
• Ron Turner can’t leave fast enough.  Granted, he’s been an improvement over Shoop, but I still want a GOOD OC.
• Finally, again, the Bears are not going anywhere this year, so they might as well lose out, and try and get as good a draft pick as they can.  This team needs a lot of help to get back to being the team they were last year - offensive line, running back, defensive line and secondary, and possibly a QB.  However, this ‘losing out’ I’m OK with does NOT apply to the Green Bay game (although, truthfully, I expect a slaughter that game).

Go Bears!

Some thoughts on yesterdays game, while trying to figure out how high the Bears could pick in next years draft…

• Say what you will about Grossmans fumble yesterday, but he (Rex) was probably the second best player on the field (even if Hester didn’t have an awesome day, he’s probably still the best player).
• Over 200 yards, no interceptions, and no forced throws into coverage.  I’m not sure what happend on the fumble (ie, if he was trying to run or still looking to throw), but if it had been, say, Ogunleye that tracked the other QB down and forced a fumble, noone would be all over that QB for the fumble, but going on about the good play by our guy.  Rarely do I see a double standard applied to a Bears player where our guy is always on the ‘bad’ side of things.
• So, Cedric Benson gets over 60 yards on his first two carries, finally seems to be having a good game (although, given how the offensive line played the rest of the game, who knows if he could have kept it up), and he gets the ball a whopping 3 times the rest of the half, and 7 overall.  For a team that ‘gets off the bus running’, the only thing the Bears coaching staff seems to be running is their collective mouths.
• Also, this ‘need’ to make sure the other Adrian Peterson gets his carries - just stop it.  We know what we have in Peterson - decent backup/change of pace/pass blocking guy.  We’re not real sure what we have with Benson yet.  Yes, I think he’s a bust - but he shows just enough every now and then to show he may not be worthless.  Granted, very few runningbacks are going to do well with this offensive line, but still, we need to find out if Benson is worth keeping around, or if it’s best to trade him/buy him out and start again.
• Receivers did OK yesterday.  Nothing there to really get on them for.
• Offensive play calling was horrible.  For instance, even the pair of interns they had calling the game yesterday knew that, if Hester is not being used in the offense (and he hadn’t had a play go his way the entire game to this point), then using him in a reverse is just dumb, dumb, dumb.  The fact Hester was stopped for a big loss was about the least suprising thing of the day.
• The offensive line - which was pretty darn good last year - is just awful.  Actually, Fred Miller is just awful.  Turnstyle.  The rest of the line might be OK (they’re not, but for arguments sake), but you have a guard that bad, it makes the whole line look bad, because his defensive responsibility is constantly getting past him into the backfield.
• Defense - below average at best.  Injuries have hurt, trading away some experience because this was going to be the year Mike Brown finally stayed healthy was a mistake, but they’re just not good.  I don’t know if Rivera made that much difference, or the team isn’t playing well, but this isn’t anywhere near the same defense we had last year, even with mostly the same guys.
• Special teams - returns, place kicks - all fine.  But last year, coverage on kickoffs and punts was outstanding.  We were constantly pinning guys deep in their own end of the field.  Now, we’re constantly giving up big return yards, or kicking balls out of bounds on kickoffs, etc.  Don’t know what happened there, but return coverage had also been below-average at best this year.
• Not much else to say.  Going to be four ‘who cares’ home games for me the rest of the season.  Bears have no shot this year, and they should quit pretending they do.  Play the  younger players, see what they can give you, and start planning for next year.
• Next week - Denver comes calling after a short week (they play tonight).  I still think Denver will win big.  There’s no reason for the crowd to be all that into the game (other than when Hester is on the field), and the Bears are better off losing out and getting better draft picks than working their way back to something near .500.

Go Bea……ah, screw it.  It’s not worth it.

No, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth.  I missed the previous two games due to being out of town, and have just now had time to talk about the ‘game’ on Sunday.  I didn’t get to see anything of the previous two games except the last drive against the Eagles, so didn’t have a whole lot to add other than the Bears are a below-average team - nothing that’s news to anyone watching them play.  However, I did sit through that seemingly long game on Sunday, so without further delay, a few thoughts on the last four weekends whle wondering what the Bears will do to adress the RB position in the off-season…

• The Bears really are thisclose to being tied with Miami at 0-9.  And they’d probably be better off in the long term by potentially being historically bad rather than just bad.

• At some point, the Bears have to see what Orton can do with this team.  It’s pretty clear that Griese will never be anything better than a decent backup.

• I’m even OK with going back to Grossman.  Given his up and downs, I don’t think he’ll be expensive for anyone to sign, and given that he’s still a relatively young QB having only played in one full season, I’d like to see if he can develop further before throwing in the towel.

• My nightmare scenario is Grossman going to Green Bay - where they actually can develop a QB - and seeing him flat-out own the Bears for the next decade the way Farve owned the Bears for the 1990s and early part of this decade.

• Still, regardless of the interceptions, in my mind, QB is not the problem on this team in terms of offense - it’s Cedric Benson.  He was supposed to be ‘the guy’, and right now, he’s not even playing well enough to be ‘a guy.’  He couldn’t even get it done against a team that had given up a 100-yard rusher for something like five straight games.

• Hester needs to be involved more as a reciever, especially on crossing routes.  Skip the end-arounds - they aren’t fooling anyone.

• Speaking of Hester, he seemed to be trying to do too much for a lot of the game on returns.  Once he stopped that, and just started taking what was there instead of going backwards trying to create something that wasn’t there, he had a big return that was, unfortunately, wiped out due to an uneccessary block in the back.

• Hopefully, however, his not-so-great day will lead to more teams kicking to him on kickoffs and punts.

• We now know that Goulds range is about 50 yards.  I thought for the life of me that 53 yarder was good - just came up a bit short.

• Defense didn’t play badly at all, although against Oakland, that’s not high praise.  Urlacher still doesn’t seem all there.  I do wonder if he’ll ever be able to get back to 100% for a full year if he has an arthritic back.  It’s a shame too - he’s as good an MLB as we may see in Chicago for awhile.

• Griese had a great drive against the Eagles to win the game.   It’s too bad the momentum from that didn’t carry over into the following week.

• And I don’t care how much the Lions have improved this year - there’s no reason they should have lost to them this year.  Twice.

• Finally - and the reason I don’t have much to say about this game - that was about as bad a football game as I’ve seen.  Sloppy.  Ugly.  No flow at all.  Very little excitement.  The best thing about that game was the Grossman to Berrian touchdown - not because it put the Bears in the lead, but because with a four point lead, the chances of overtime were very slim.

I don’t care much about how the Bears do from here on out - I’m torn between always wanting to see them win, and getting a better draft pick this off-season, but for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE play at least an exciting to watch football game.  I’d have rather seen the Cowboys/Giants game than those three-hours masquerading as a football game on Sunday.

Some thoughts on yesterdays game, while wondering if anyone will ever tackle Adrian Peterson (Min)…

• Ugh.
• When I revised my thoughts and picked the Bears for four wins this year after seeing how bad they were, this was one of those wins.  Now - I see the Bears maybe beating Detroit in a couple weeks, but that’s about it.  There’s noone else on the schedule that should lose to the Bears.
• In fact, the Bears are probably four players away from being the worst team in the League.  Maynard and Gould are still just about automatic.  Olsen is looking like a real good pick.  And that Hester guy.  They are the only players keeping the Bears above the Rams as the worst team in the NFL, and I think the Bears might just lose if the game were in St. Louis.
• So what was good about yesterdays game?  Hester, certainly - they need to figure out a way to get him the ball more.  Muhammad made a nice catch in what looked from the sideline like quadruple coverage and got the Bears back w/in 7.  But that’s all I got.
• What was bad?  Let’s break it down as always.
• Offense - wasn’t as pathetic as normal, and actually had some success running the Ball.  Benson was doing a pretty good job against what has been a very stout run defense.  But then they stop using him.  I’m still not sure why Wolfe needed to be in there for that one series in the second quarter, completely killing any momentum they might have had.
• Speaking of Benson, every time you think he might be turning into something, every time you think ‘well, he’s a young back, maybe he just needed multiple starts under his belt’, every time you think he might not be a complete waste of a pick, he goes and drops a wide-open - and I mean WIDE OPEN - pass right to him.
• Even with that, he was still running the ball well, but they stopped giving the ball to him the way they were in the first half.  And while Benson can, apprantly, get some yardage on a sweep on occasion, they need to use that occasionally instead of every other running play.  Benson is going to be at his best running off-tackle.  He just doesn’t have the speed to consistently make the corner on a sweep.
• Not a lot of flat-out drops amongst the recivers today.  Some on a few passes that weren’t really on target, so I don’t know they can be considered ‘drops’, but overall, no real complaints about the recievers.
• I like Olsen a lot.  The Bears need to use him more, which also should free up Clark on double TE sets.  Much like Hester, they need to get him the ball.
• Hester.  My goodness.  The Vikings *had* to know they might go deep to him, and yet they somehow let him get past the entire secondary anyway for the briefly-tying touchdown.  Don’t use him on end-arounds - I just don’t see that working much.  Use his speed.  And use it not only to get him the ball, but to free up others.
• Also can’t say the offensive line was horrible.  They still weren’t as good as last year, but at least they weren’t worthless.
• I have nothing good to say about the defense yesterday.  Well, that’s not true - at least they didn’t let Adrian Peterson (Min) set the record for rushing or total yards.  But that’s all I got.
• Coverage was awful.  Tackling was awful.  Pressure was awful.  Line was awful.  Secondary was pathetic.  Linebackers were eh.
• Is there any chance we can use the lemon law to get whatever we paid Washington back for Archuleta?  He’s awful.  He may be the most worthless player on this team.  I have yet to see him make a good play this year, although I suppose it’s possible he made a nice handoff of some Gatorade to a fellow player on the sideline.
• While losing Mike Brown was bad last year, we seemed to be deep enough to withstand it.  This year, it seems to be an absolute season-killer.
• Special teams - they had a couple good plays, that being a field goal and just the fact they have Hester and the Vikings were dumb enough to kick to him - but other than that, they didn’t play well.  They weren’t covering kickoffs well at all yesterday, the worst job being on the last kickoff after managing to tie the game.  Just bad all around.
• They would have been better off letting Peterson (Min) run it back for a touchdown, taking the kickoff, and trying to get Hester deep again.
• And while players deserve a lot of blame yesterday, the coaching was just as bad.  No adjustments made at halftime for a guy that was running through them like a Pop Warner team.  They trot out Wolfe for ‘his series’ even though Benson was actually somewhat effective to that point, and then get away from the running game altogether.  Tackling.  Kicking off to Peterson on that last kickoff.  I could go on, but you get the point.
• The fact the Bears lost - at home - to a team that is just not that good simply proves that the Beare are worse than not that good, and that last week in Green Bay was a mirage.  Quite frankly, any additional wins this season should be considered a bonus.
• Finally, Adrian Peterson (Min) ruined my birthday.  This was the first time I’ve been able to go to a game on my actual birthday, and could always be the last, since even when my birthday falls on a Sunday, you always have a slightly less than 50% chance of getting a home game that particular weekend (with away games and the bye week taking up the other side).  So for ruining my day yesterday, I’ll use my birthday wish for a season-ending knee injury to said Peterson (which is down from my wish yesterday for a carerr-ending knee injury).  Oh, and I’m now back to having the Vikings as my least favorite team in the league.GO BEARS (For that top-three pick, cuz that’s all  you’re good for this year)

GO BEARS (for that top-3 pick, since that’s all you’re good for this season)

Some thoughts on last nights game while wondering if the Bears will ever give up on Benson…

• Three words.  Ho.  Lee.  Crap.
• I’m shocked.  I haven’t been this shocked about a Bears win since the Bears won up in Green Bay the day after Payton died on the blocked field goal attempt.
• The Bears were clearly the inferior team BY FAR the first half.  The only reason they were even ‘in’ the game was due to Tillman’s efforts in stripping the ball twice.  If not for Tillman, this game is probably the blowout a lot of people - including myself - expected it to be.
• The offense was simply horrible in the first half.  On both turnovers, they couldn’t even get a first down.  Granted, they were helpful from keeping the Packers from scoring more points, but to not even get a first down on both those fumble recovories was just sad.
• Why do we keep giving Benson the ball?  He had one nice drive, where he got the touchdown, but that’s it.
• Now, I will say that because they kept giving Benson the ball, even though he was doing very little with it, the play-action pass to Clark for the winning touchdown was open.  But that had more to do with giving the running back position the ball than Benson.
• I remain convinced the Benson was the worst draft pick the Bears have made since I started paying attention to them.
• Griese did a much better job last night.  It seemed that last week was definitely a case of rust rather than just being bad.  That’s not to say he won’t have his weeks where you realize why this is his fourth team, but play like last night - at least in the second half - will keep the Bears in a lot of games.
• The offensive line, while still not great, was better last night.  Griese didn’t seem to be quite as much under attack as last week.
• Hey - the Bears actually realized they have Tight Ends!!!  Now if they can just remember that.
• Nice to see Olsen get his first TD.  Not sure if he would have come in bounds if he wasn’t pushed at all, but I’ll take it.  And just a great play by Clark on the winning TD.
• Lovie Smith is now 4-0 in Green Bay.  Whatever else you want to say about him, that’s awfully impressive, because Lambeau - whether the Packers are good or not - is a damn tough place to play.
• The WRs weren’t really heard from much last night.  Which is good - means they weren’t dropping passes.  Berrian being out w/ some sort of toe injury probably helped that somewhat.
• The Defense was all sorts of bad in the first half.  But they were as good in the second as they were bad in the first.  Or, maybe Green Bay just played that badly in the second half.   Probably a little of both.
• Still, none of that probably would have mattered if Brett didn’t have a ‘Farve’ moment (ESPNs words, not mine) and thrown the ball right to Urlacher.  Not a good decision on his part.
• Once again, great job by Tillman in the first half creating two fumbles.  He was the only good player for the defense in the first half.
• And outstanding job by Maynard following the play on his punt and recovering the fumble - and doing all of it in bounds.
• Hester obviously didn’t have a lot going on last night, as the Packers were clearly kicking away from (or over) him.  But the one punt return late in the game was still impressive.  Inside the 10, and 4 guys coming unblocked towards him - and he still manages to get through that line and up to the 20.  It wasn’t a huge return, but there are very few people in the league - if there even is anyone else - that can do that.
• And even when Hester doesn’t get kicked to, he still puts them in good field position.  If teams want to give the Bears the ball outside the 30 every time just to avoid kicking to Hester, I’m perfectly OK with that.
• Please hurry back, Vahser.  Manning is clearly lost at CB.
• Outstanding job by McGowan on the last play of the game.  Driver was right there for the ball, but McGowan just went up and took that ball for himself.  Can’t believe it was that close, but they/he got it done.
• Special teams had problems on kick and punt coverage again, but other than that were solid.  I was disappointed we couldn’t get a kick blocked for the fifth week in a row, although Urlacher was damn close.
• Ron Turner gets a lot of crap from, well, everyone over his play calling, and deservedly so (at least in my opinion).  But the two plays he called for the last two touchdowns - going for the jugular right away on the pass to Olsen after the Urlacher INT and the play-action to Clark - were some of the best play calls I’ve seen out of him in a long time.
• Finally, regardless of the fact the Bears won last night, I’m not convinced that they’ve turned some sort of corner.  I think Griese will be OK now that he has a couple weeks behind him now (or, at least, he can’t use rust as an excuse), but Benson is still awful, the offensive line play has been mixed at best, and even the defense hasn’t seemed quite as good as they did the first few weeks.  I think the Packers lost the game last night more than the Bears won it, but a win is still a win.  I do think the Bears should be able to beat the Vikings this week, but at this point, I still don’t see them getting to 8 wins for the year.  I hope I’m as wrong about that as I was in predicting the game last night.

Still, since they won last night, GO BEARS!!!!

Some thoughts on today’s game, while wondering if the Bears can win even four games….

• OK, some good things.  Special teams are still good.  Hester is Hester (albeit w/ a couple more fumbles, both fortunately out of bounds).  Gould has a new career-long FG.  Two more blocked kicks.  That’s all I got.
• So, all the problems this team had would be solved by Griese replacing Grossman, eh?
• Three interceptions today.  The pick-six was all on Griese.  The other two, Berrian could have fought a little for the ball on the first one, but still not a great throw.  The other one was behind Berrian, but he can’t knock it up in the air.
• Speaking of Berrian, I put him so far down on the depth chart, he doesn’t see the field again unless injuries decimate the WR corp, and we can’t lure Jerry Rice out of retirement.
• At least Muhammad played fairly well when he was thrown to.
• Benson looked a little better to start the second half, but I continue to believe Benson was the worst draft pick this team has ever made.  For a power runner, he can’t be knocked down in open field like he was on his one big run.  And, of course, he continues to put the ball on the ground.
• The Offensive Line continues to be a joke.  How this line, which was pretty good last year, can suck as badly as they do now is beyond me.
• Greg Olsen was supposed to help revitalize this offense.  So why don’t we actually throw the ball to him on occasion?  Clark was pretty good.
• The defense held their own a lot longer than they thought they would.  I do give them some credit for the first three quarters.  The biggest issue seemed to be, with the offense not being able to stay on the field, they just kept wearing down - which, given that all four players in the secondary aren’t supposed to be the starters, that’ll happen.  But they still fell apart in the fourth quarter.
• Nice to see the Bears at least force a few turnovers this week.  Too bad they kept giving it right back.
• Already mentioned the special teams.  The TD return on the onside kick sometimes happens - the odds were stacked against us anyway.  Outside of that, they did a nice job today.
• Four games, five blocked kicks, with at least one in each of the first four games.  I don’t know if records are kept for this sort of thing, but that can’t be common.
• This game didn’t suprise me, other than they kept it closer than I thought they would.
• Finally, next week is a Sunday Night game IN Green Bay.  I don’t care what the line is, if you’re putting money on the game, you have to go with the Packers.  Green Bay giving 17 points?  Doesn’t matter - give ‘em up.  There’s no point to even have a preview for next weekend - the Bears will be annihilated next week.  If the Packers don’t win by at least 20 points, it’s only because they took their foot off the gas.

I’d end with GO BEARS, but this season is over.