Blue: Though I am doomed to at least eight more weeks of looking for the positive Blue lining in a sea of Orange muck, I can tell you this: When prepared right, Asian carp is quite delicious.
Though the Mississippi and many other rivers in the southern Midwest are under threat of ecological disaster, many in these areas are working to make a living farming these fish, which are highly sought after in ironically, Asia.
Like this much maligned fish, the 2010 version of our Bears are highly criticized in nearly all forums, yet if you look close enough, you can find the positives.
Granted all of the positives I will list did come during a comeback victory against the worst team in the NFL, but remember I’m saying that the redeeming quality of a creature that might destroy the Great Lakes is that we can make money selling it’s flesh to the countries of origin.
The O
The offense showed promise, with Mike Martz “dialing up” a more evenly balanced run/pass ratio (30 passes to 31 rushes). Funny, when we’re not targeting one cornerback to pick on by throwing the ball at/to him over and over again, it keeps the defense off the field and doesn’t totally surrender field position and thusly points.
Though not an overly affective run attack, the Bears were able to avoid the costly turnovers that sank the ship versus the Redskins. The receiving corps continues to show improvement with Earl Bennett showing that he might be the real possession wide receiver this team has lacked since the days of Marty Booker.
The offensive line is still comprised of five monstrous, barely moving lumpy piles of stinking Asian carp flesh, but somehow they were able to hold the 25th ranked (by sacks) defense from killing Jay Cutler like so much defenseless plankton.
Additionally, the only holes this offensive seems to make are in creating donuts from Danish with angry bites, but both Matt Forte and Chester Taylor showed that if they’re given the rock enough times, they can show flashes of why they make the big bucks.
The D
The defense is still exposing us to the pain of waiting for the bend to break, but somehow they pulled a couple interceptions when they counted and stopped a drive to end the Bills’ chances of pulling out their first victory.
It’s good to see our recent draft picks (Major Wright, DJ Moore, Henry Melton) actually on the field for the Bears and contributing. Whether they can keep giving up yards while waiting for Godot and a another miracle turnover without getting crushed by quarterbacks not hailing from the Ivy League remains to be seen.
To keep this winning streak of one going there’s got to be more pressure on the quarterback, but we did spend some serious dollars to get the best defensive lineman in the game on our squad. Here’s to hoping that Julius Peppers gets his sack on and Tommie Harris realizes that sacks are better than sitting out.
Vikings at Bears
We’re not good, but they’re not so good either.
Though their run defense is still tough, the quarterback pressure has been wanting in Minnesota, which should give Cutler time to find his usually confused wideouts for a good number of off-balance flings which should lead to points.
The Bears and crew have had Favre’s number in preceding years, but look for them to play the run heavily while punching at Percy Harvin and the ball he’s carrying past Peanut Tillman and into the endzone.
It should be close, but at home and while still theoretically in the hunt for the division lead, I see our Bears pulling out another narrow, if ugly victory.
Bears 24, Vikings 17.
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Orange: Can we really glean any insight about the Bears from their victory over the Buffalo Bills?
Nope. They beat a crappy football team.
But let’s ask the experts anyway.
“We’re not sitting in first place right now, but to me (that’s) because we’ve played one less game than the team that’s up top right now.” – Lovie Smith, 11/7/10
Strange. It seemed like it was because of home losses against Washington and Seattle.
“Jay (Cutler) did a good job utilizing his feet and converting some big plays for us on the ground.” – Greg Olsen, 11/7/10
So good that he accounted for about 37% of Chicago’s rushing yards (39 of 105). Cutler, Earl Bennett and Devin Hester combined for 7 rushes out of a total of 31. Let’s not get too worked up about the Bears “commitment” to the run when their starting running back has 14 attempts in a game against the 32nd-ranked rushing defense.
“We’ve been kind of inconsistent offensively.” – Jay Cutler, 11/4/10
That’s one way of putting it. One could also call them inconsistently offensive.
“It feels like someone kicked you in the stomach.” – Bills coach Chan Gailey, 11/7/10
Thankfully, it only hurt about 80% as much as it would have in New York, thanks to the Canadian stomach-kick conversion rate.
“Why is Earl Bennett covering Greg Olsen?” – Marivel Mohrbacher, just prior to Olsen’s second quarter touchdown reception
Also, Johnny Knox just missed making the tackle. Sooooo . . . the simplified version of the Martz offense confuses receivers enough to have the top three options standing within five feet of each other in the end zone?
“I’ve never [beaten] a 10, but I once [beat] five 2s.” – George Carlin
Okay, okay. Let’s give Green Bay credit for being a seven.
The Bears have beaten four 2’s.
Vikings at Bears
Want to get hammered on Sunday?
Take a shot of whiskey every time one of the broadcasters says some variation of the word “gunsling” during the coverage. Between Cutler and Favre, balls should be flying all about the lakefront and who knows where they’ll end up. Expect the turnover differential to be about even when all is said and done.
This contest will ultimately be won or lost with the running game and we’ve seen what Adrian Peterson does to arm tackles.
If the Bears play conservatively, they should be able to hang in this game thanks to the ball-punching abilities of the secondary, but ultimately the Vikings have too many weapons and the defense will be on the field too long to hold all of them down.
Vikings 20, Bears 13.
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Andrew Golden brings you the Blue half of this report every week; Carl Mohrbacher brings you the Orange. They welcome your comments.
Posted on November 10, 2010