Urlacher may have back problems

In another blow to the Chicago Bears, ESPN.com is reporting that Brian Urlacher may have an arthritic back.  Urlacher’s play this year has been inconsistent at best and downright discouraging at worst.  Urlacher is another guy who has been the heart and soul of this defense for years.  His inability to play up to his full potential has obviously hurt the Bears, as it has been costing them nearly 10 tackles a game from the Pro-Bowl linebacker.  While Urlacher has been somewhat tight-lipped about his back issues and coach Lovie Smith offered only cryptic half answers when questioned, it’s obvious to anyone that Urlacher is not the same player this season.

This creates maddening problems for the Bears, who have had their fair share of problems since before the season even began.  With Urlacher possibly on the decline, signing franchise player Lance Briggs to a long-term contract becomes extremely important, if not totally necessary, and that’s only shoring up your team for the future.  The Bears are expected to make the playoffs this year, and need to find a way to fix their issues right now.  If they cannot, then the second half of the season could get away from the Bears really quickly.  Luckily for them, they have an amazing coaching staff, players with tons of heart, and the talent to win in the NFC.  They just need to put everything together and win a few games to get back on track.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 31, 2007 - Post a comment

Bears Fall Yet Again in Power Rankings

ESPN.com has released its weekly Power Rankings, and for Bears Nation the news is pretty dire.  The Chicago Bears, now sitting on a 3-5 record, have fallen all the way to number 23 in the Power Rankings this week, falling another five spots after their loss to Detroit.  I covered the loss yesterday, but i must reiterate that the Bears played an extremely sloppy game that they deserved to lose.  Too many more games like the one they played against the Lions on Sunday and the Bears will play themselves completely out of playoff contention altogether.  This is absolutely unacceptable for a team that only last year made it all the way to the Super Bowl.

The Bears are in total disarray at the moment, and this second half of the season is going to be a real test for these NFC Champions.  Lovie Smith’s coaching abilities will be under a microscope in the second half of the season, as this first half has been extremely disappointing to say the least.  Many people in very high positions are going to have to answer for the extremely poor scouting of elite offensive talent in the organization, and whether the Bears turn it around or not, it is apparent that wholesale changes to the offensive philosophy are necessary, starting with the scouting of early round offensive talent.  In the short term, the Bears can take comfort in the fact that 10 teams before them have started 3-5 and made the playoffs, so all hope is not lost yet.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 30, 2007 - Post a comment

Bears Lose to Lions

In case you missed the game, here’s the ESPN.com recap of the Bears/Lions game.  The Bears lost again, and this time in awful fashion, as Brian Griese threw two picks and just never did look very confident out on the field.  The Bears were unable to really get anything going all game, and the Lions pretty much ate their lunch.  This is a huge blow to the Bears’ season.  The Bears needed this win.  They needed to come out and get a strong effort from their defense and special teams.  They needed their running game to finally show up and help Griese out of a jam or two from time to time.

Unfortunately, the Bears find out that sometimes, you don’t get what you need.  In fact, sometimes you get the exact opposite.  The Bears were flat.  They had more injuries on defense that will be addressed later in the week.  Their running game was lackluster.  And to top it all off, Brian Griese had a bad game as well.  When you don’t show up on defense or offense, you can’t win a football game.  The Bears have a lot to answer for the rest of this season, starting at Lovie Smith on down.  This season has absolutely gotten away from the Bears.  Fans may want to start focusing on lottery draft picks moreso than the playoffs.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 29, 2007 - Post a comment

Everyone wants their own Devin Hester

Len Pasquarelli has written a very interest article posted to ESPN.com today.  It details the move by many NFL teams to find the next Devin Hester.  Kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns are running well above average at this point in the season, and smaller, insanely fast players are becoming the trend as every team is now on the lookout for the next automatic touchdown generator du jour. Devin Hester’s potentially-record-shattering success in his first two full seasons returning kicks for the Chicago Bears has led to a trend of sorts among many other teams in the NFL.

Can you really blame the rest of the NFL for looking for another Devin Hester?  The Chicago Bears are a team held together with string and twine right now, and Devin Hester is one of the only reasons they’re putting points on the board at all right now.  Sure, Griese has done a lot to bolster the anemic offense, but the Bears D isn’t scoring with the same consistency this season.  With no run game, the Bears are no longer winning the time of possession battle.  The Bears need quick, explosive touchdowns, and Hester provides that spark. There are tons of other teams with multiple flaws that would love nothing more than to find a magic player that could gloss over their problems.  However, as all Bears fans know, there is only one Devin Hester.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 26, 2007 - Post a comment

Bears Make ESPN’s List of NFC Fakers

ESPN.com has compiled a list of all the flawed teams who are competing for the right to likely get destroyed in the Super Bowl by whatever team wins the AFC, and the Chicago Bears made the list.  Despite their 3-4 record, the fact that the Bears are the defending NFC Champions holds a lot of water with this particular panel of experts, who are quick to point out that nearly every team in the NFC - even those with more wins than the Bears - is incomplete in some way.  The Cowboys lack defense.  The Giants could fall apart at any second, and are prone to inconsistency.  The Seahawks are a different team week to week.  The Lions have no running game and a suspect defense.  The Bears, with their complete lack of a running game and horribly inconsistent defense, are still not out of the hunt.

I’ve been saying this for awhile.  While the Bears have certainly dug themselves into a huge hole and are likely going to have to win the Wild Card to make the playoffs, they are not out of contention by a long shot.  Every single team in the NFC could fall apart at any moment.  There are fatal flaws in each and every one of these teams.  And Chicago does have one very important thing going for them this season - tons of veteran leadership.  At the end of the season, when all the chips are down and there are only a precious few games left to decide who makes the playoffs and who goes home, experience is everything.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 25, 2007 - Post a comment

Lions Gearing up for Bears

In this article from mlive.com, Tom Kowalski warns that the Bears are not the same team they were the last time the Lions faced them.  This time, the Bears are being led by a truly confident and capable quarterback in the form of Brian Griese. Since the Bears took a 34-point shellacking from the Detroit Lions in the fourth quarter alone four weeks ago, the Bears have continued to have their problems.  However, Griese’s play has been unwavering.  In the midst of a Bears team in total disarray, with no real running game to speak of and a defense that is inconsistent at best, Griese has been able to keep the Bears treading water.

I never thought I would say this, but I kind of favor the Lions over the Bears this weekend.  The Lions have an extremely potent offense capable of laying 35 points on anyone every week.  The Bears defense is banged up.  They have no running game.  I mean, if the Bears had any semblance of a running game, they could at least try to keep the Lions off the field.  The defense is going to have to step up huge and stop the Great Show on Turf pt. 2, because the Chicago Bears - Brian Griese or no - cannot afford to get into a shootout this Sunday.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 25, 2007 - Post a comment

Bears Move Up in Power Rankings

It’s Wednesday, and I’m still catching news about these raging wildfires, so we’re going to go straight to the ESPN.com NFL Power Rankings for our daily dose of Bears news.  In a  dose of bittersweet news, the Bears rose five spots in the Power Rankings after their  Brian Griese-led come-from-behind victory last Sunday, all the way to  #18.  The Chicago Bears will need to win quite a few more games if they hope to convince the ESPN experts that they still belong among the NFL’s elite.

In defense of the Bears, I will say this - they have a darn good quarterback.  Griese has posted back-to-back 300+ yard games, with basically no help from the running game.  While it truly seemed like the wheels were falling off in Chicago after the Minnesota game, they showed a lot of heart last Sunday and may still be able to gut out a playoff spot in the NFC.  It will take many more gutsy performances, but there is still time for the Bears to turn it around.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 24, 2007 - Post a comment

Griese Orchestrated Final Drive

First of all, allow me to offer my apologies for now having a blog up and running yesterday for you.  The San Diego County fires were a bit of a set-back, and I found myself glued to the television set awaiting word as to whether I should evacuate or not.  However, right now it appears that I am safe, so I wanted to get this blog to you while I had a window.  I will try to continue to supply daily blogs for the rest of the week, but I am certainly at the whim of the Santa Anna winds right now.

Having gotten that unpleasantness out of the way, let’s move on to this article shedding some light on the story of how Brian Griese was forced to lead the Chicago Bears’ improbable come-from-behind-victory on Sunday without the aid of radio communication to his coaches.  This story basically perfectly illustrates all the amazing intangibles that Griese brings to the field that Grossman just never has and never will.  If the Bears can shore up their other issues and make the playoffs, they might still have a shot.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 23, 2007 - Post a comment

Ex-Bear resumes practice with new team

I know he’s not a Bear anymore, and therefore this barely qualifies as Bears news, but honestly the news in Bears Nation is not good, and I’m tired of beating the dead horse of “the Bears aren’t playing well right now” into the ground.  ESPN.com has reported the Ex-Bear Tank Johnson has resumed practice with his new NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys.  Johnson, a defensive tackle, had numerous off-field issues during his playing days with the Bears, eventually causing the organization to severe ties with Johnson after he was suspended for half the 2007 season and later pulled over for reckless driving during the preseason.

Do you think maybe the Bears are regretting that decision now?  Say what you will about Tank’s problems off the field, but you could never accuse him of letting any of his troubles affect his play on the field.  On top of that, since being pulled over, passing a sobriety test, and having all charges stemming from his preseason incident dropped, Johnson has been 100% out of the news for any reason whatsoever (other than his signing with the Cowboys).  Think the Bears might be feeling like they jumped the gun a little on that one?  Think they might want to take a mulligan on cutting the guy over something that turned out to be nothing, especially with all their injuries?  I bet they might.  Just a little more bad news for fans who need some good news.  Sorry guys, but there’s not much of that to come by these days in Bears Nation.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 19, 2007 - Post a comment

Lovie Smith Calls His Players Out

Found a great article on ChicagoSports.com, discussing the fact that Lovie Smith recently called out his players for a lack of effort against the Minnesota Vikings last week.  While the idea that the coach noticed a lack of heart from a team that allowed a rookie running back to go LT on them shouldn’t shock anyone, the fact that Lovie Smith publicly called the team out should definitely raise a few eyebrows.  Smith is generally known for being extremely tight-lipped and professional in all his comments, and especially for protecting his players in the media (Remeber “Rex Grossman is our quarterback”?).  The fact that Lovie decided to air this grievance publicly is sort of a big deal.

Can anyone blame the guy, though?  If you saw that game against Minnesota, you were most likely shocked and appalled to see your defense giving up the game in the final minutes.  I mean, Bears fans are used to their offense screwing things up and making their defense clean up the mess, but they have rarely been treated to teams that work the other way around.  After the Hester TD at the end of the game, you got the feeling “hey, we can take this thing in OT, we’ve got the veteran team, we’ve got- oh my god are they KICKING TO PETERSON??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

I was in a sports bar full of Bears fans.  It was truly brutal to watch the special teams and defense roll over and die like that.  Whether it was questionable to kick to a guy that had carved you up all day or not, Smith has to be able to trust his D in those situations.  If he can’t trust his defense in the future, the Bears should just start scouting  high draft picks.

You can get all your Chicago Bears tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on October 18, 2007 - Post a comment


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