Bears Journal

NFC Championship baby!!!

Well at some times it was not pretty, but a win is a win right? I am going to start off by saying that I love Robbie Gould. From everything I have heard and read about him, he really seems like a great guy who works hard at his trade. I only hope that he continues to work hard and grow WITH the Bears.

 Grossman was my hotpoint in the previous post (and every media outlet in the world) and I believe the first series of plays were a perfect confindence builder for him. I think everyone needs to thank Jordan Babineaux for not intercepting the first quarter pass from Rex Grossman to Rashied Davis. I firmly believe after hearing the fans Boo Grossman as he entered Soldier Field that if that pass would have been intercepted that early in the game, Grossman would not have recovered from it. While I am on that, have any of the fans present at the game ever taking Psyche 101???? I got an idea, let’s boo our starting quarterback when he enters the game and then hope the Bears win. What were they thinking?? It is not like Lovie Smith was going to say….”hmm, they are booing Rex and you know what, they are right….Griese…your starting today.” Come on fans, show some support for your team, if not for Rex, out of respect for the rest of the team. They come out pumped up for a playoff game and they have complete support for Rex, and you boo the man that may be the reason they win a championship or not. Totally classless.

 Speaking of Rashied Davis. What a great game. I really enjoyed watching him today and love the story behind how he got to this point. He definitely gets a game ball. Berrian also had a great game. If Rex would have led him just a little more on that incompletion he would of had 150 yards and two TD’s. For the most part all the receivers played well, but the catchable passes can not be dropped against the Saints.

On the other side of the ball, thank goodness for Lance Briggs. I am going to watch the tape again, but he seems to be the only player in place on 90% of the plays. It seemed as though Urlacher was either pulling double teams or was on the wrong side of the field on most of the plays. 4 tackles for the game for him seems light. The secondary MUST improve before next week or Brees is going to expose them for real. The DB’s had way too much seperation on most of the pass routes. Speaking of seperation, what was up with the middle of the field all game. Once Alexander got past the line it was 6-10 yards of daylight every time. Bush and Deuce will take major advantage of the open field to make the Bears D miss. That has to improve. And Speaking of improving….the offensive line knows they need to give Rex time or we will see the 1.3 rated Rex. Way to many hurries and sacks. I sure hope we do not see that against the Saints.

Here are my grades for the game.

Special Teams - D
Hester must improve his catching skills. Blocking in the back is elementary for the return teams. That is unacceptable. This would have been an F if not for Gould.

Defense - C
Played well for the most part, but needs some major cover improvements and the run defense was horrendous except for some key stops on 3rd and 4th downs.

Offense - B
The Benson-Jones combo was money this game. A great performance from both. The recievers seemed to run good routes, but touchable balls should be catchable balls. We need more play from Clark against the Saints. Grossman needs to find a checkdown receiver much quicker.

Coaching - C
The 2 second timeout could have been a major issue. With 15-16 seconds they would have had to punt. Some of the calls were great, but not converting on some of the drives inside the 50 were a direct result of play calling. Especially the drive when the Bears were on the 12 with 4 downs. We were averaging good yardage per carry. Run it in.

I am very pumped for the Saints game. Hopefully we get a good week of practice in and things go a little smoother against them.

 BEAR DOWN!

After reading articles for the past week from every “expert” currently on television, radio, the internet and in print, I decided to write my own articles regarding my beloved Bears. Let me first state that I am in no way, nor will I pretend to be, an author, sports writer, “expert”, or professional when it comes to grammar, speling, or any other item you may find while on my site. So don’t waste time responding to a post and ripping apart every imperfection. Do reply with an opinion, agreement, disagreement, or comment please.

This blog is for the average fan. We know enough about the team to carry a conversation and know when #46 makes a tackle that it is Chris Harris. We know the history, we know the QB Curse that has plagued the team since Sid Luckman left, and we probably got teary eyed when Walter Payton’s died. We have cursed John Shoop, laughed at pictures of Jonathan Quinn, and screamed “TIGHT END” while watching the 2006 NFL Draft. We have loved the Bears through good times and bad. Well to start my blog off with a bang. These are bad times.

 Let’s get to it. Here is my summary of the Bears leading into Sunday’s game against the Seahawks. I changed the category headings into something more realistic than the usual - Strengths, Weakness, Goals, Keys, blah blah blah.

Oh Crap - Confidence. plain and simple. In the Green Bay Game I wanted to pull a Brokeback and hug Rex Grossman. He looked like he was about to cry. That is not a very positive sight to see when looking at your starting Quarterback. Unless Grossman can harness that cockiness he had at Florida and bring back some of his Month 1 of 2006 swagger, he will most definitely be pulled by the half. I do believe in his talent and think that he can regain it, but it hinges on the play calling of Ron Turner. Start off the game with some quick backfield passes to TJ or some simple hooks to Clark. Get the 3-5 yard confidence builders early. Another key is to establish the run and open open up the middle of the field for Clark. After that, we can pick the 4th string secondary of Seattle apart downfield. Please (Insert your religeous reference of choice here) let him have some confidence in this game.

Where did he come from? - Another thing that needs to happen in this game is someone from the defense needs to have a career game besides Urlacher. My choice, Tillman. After last years airing of the Steve Smith Show at Soldier Field I think Tillman will have some added motivation to not have an encore performance of the Carolina game. Seattle has a patched up receiving corps and I think the fresh Bears crew will help Tillman achieve this. My second choice, Mark Anderson. His speed has got to be a factor in this game. The Bears sacked Seattle 5 times earlier in the season and I think a repeat is needed.

Practice? Are we really talking about practice? - The week leading up to the game every media outlet on the planet has interviewed Bears players, former players, color analyst, the lady at the Steak N Shake drive through and my sister. Everyone is focused on asking the Bears about their opinion of Grossman, Gale Sayers, the defense, not having Tommie Harris, etc. What are they going to say, “Well, to be perfectly honest, I think Mr. Sayers is right. We have issues. I don’t think we will win this one. You guys sure know your stuff. We’re not that good. Boy I am scared about the game Sunday.” I understand news is not good unless there is controversy, but come on. Leave well enough alone and let the guys practice in peace and get ready for the game. If I was the coach, come playoff time, no interviews with players….period.

You can do it! - Ok, so we know a couple things going into Sunday. We are more healthy. Rex is getting bedtime stories from Ron Turner and dreaming of game tape at night. The defense is focused. Seattle is a team that is playing good, not great, but is well coached and has talent. The media says they think the Bears will win, but really does not want them to so that we can do this all over again in the future and they will have a built in storyline. And finally that we all truly want to win a super bowl again. So what is my take on the outcome. Who cares? I will root for my team and if I truly could pick the outcome, I would mortgage the house and go to Vegas. So next time you hear on the radio or television, or read online or in the paper and you see someone say “I think it will be the Bears, 19-17.” keep in mind that the further one reaches ahead in time with a set of forecasts, the greater the margin for error, since the fan of the projections widens. (Thank you Daniel Bell) So with about 1:43 to go in the Fourth Quarter Sunday I will predict the games outcome. Come back and check it out.

BEAR DOWN!

Hi everyone. This is epaulmiller from the CB.com Message Boards (The guy with the member photos site). Welcome to my blog.