Richard Kagan's Chicago Bears fan blog

The Chicago Bulls are 12-3 in the young season, just started about 3 weeks ago.  It seems like they have a game every other night, the schedule is so packed.  9 game in 12 days.  A back to back ending tomorrow.  The Bulls were 8-1 in that 9 game stretch.  And climbed into the top echelon of the NBA. 

Chicago has great depth.  Some of the players on their bench could be starters.  Taj Gibson is emerging into one of the top bench players in the league.  It is possible he could take the 6th man award this season.  He scores, defends, rebounds, blocks out, and plays with all out hustle.  Omer Asik, another Chicago big does a great job in the low post, rebounding and defending.  He is good with his feet, and positions himself well down low.  But it comes down to a another 1-2 punch in Derrick Rose and Luol Deng.  Rose and Deng make a great pair.  Rose is so quick, he can score almost at will.  When he wants to, he can take over a game.  Not many players in the NBA can do what he does.  He is fun to watch because you never know what he will do, and what he does, he does it with style and panache.  Well, that's redundant, but watching Rose play isn't. 

Continue reading "Bulls Are Boppin'"

NY Giants beat Green Bay on the road, 37-20 in a playoff upset on Sunday.   The Packers looked shaky, out of sync, and confused.  Aaron Rodgers didn't play like he usually does.   I couldn't believe the amount of dropped balls the Packers had.  Wide open passes at times, just dropped.  They never got into their fast paced mode and their defense was "matator D".  The Pack looked ordinary tonight, and the Giants played with precision, heart, and intensity.  The Giants won the game.  This game was the upset of the playoffs so far.

This may not be talked about much, but apparently, the mourning of the death of one of the coach's young son, may have taken a toll. Commentators noted the players were somber before the game, and it appeared that Green Bay came out with energy.  But when the Giants didn't roll over like other opponents, Green Bay got a bit flustered.  Eli Manning looked and played like a top NFL QB, and Rodgers had perhaps his worst game of the season.  Manning had 330 yards and 3 TD's for the game.  The Hail Mary pass caught by Nicks in toward end of first half put Giants up 20-10, and that set the tone, that this would be an uphill battle.  Hats off to the Giants.

Continue reading "Giants Win in Lambeau"

I'll tell ya, after seeing Eli Manning throw a prayer to the end zone, and Hakeem Nicks grabbing the ball deep for a TD, the Pack has no defense.  Where is the rush, where are the bruising hits?  Manning has all the time in the world.  He can sort his laundry back there.  No wonder he has over 245 yards passing in the first half.  And, that's a guesstimate.  it could be more.  The Giants lead at the half, 20-10, and a game that Packer fans thought was theirs is suddenly up in the air.

Of course, Aaron Rodgers can throw too.  It may be come down to dueling Qb's.  Like the other NFC game.  In this age, of instant offense, anything can happen.  If New York has a semblance of a pass rush, the Packers could be in for a tough 2nd half.  As it stands, they have no defense, in fact, it appears that is worse than New Orleans' which is saying something.  Manning is carving up the secondary like Swiss Cheese.  We could have an upset brewing.

Continue reading "Giants Play Like Giants in 1st Half"

Hey, here is a way to make Tim Tebow irrevelant.  Score so many points, that you take away his strength, the running game, and force him to pass, which is iffy at best.  Watching Tim Tebow pass is watching a dentist pull a tooth.  It's painful.  Sometimes he throws a nice pass, other times, it looks like a bird falling to earth.  Today, most of his passes were futile.  Tom Brady of the Pats made sure of that as New England routed the upstart Broncos, 45-10.  There was no 4th quarter heroics for Tebow.  There was hardly any thing significant Denver did, because they were trailing 21-7, and all off a sudden, its 35-7 before the half, and game over. 

Tebow can throw a pass or two in the clutch, like last week's OT thriller against Pittsburgh.  But Joe Namath, he is not.  Leave it to coach Bill Bellichick to implement a game plan that rendered Tebow-time, sooo-long goodbye.  Denver's defense, which has played well of late, was completely ineffective in stopping the Pats onslaught.  Passes were flying all over the place.  There was no pass rush.  Finally, New England looked like a team to reckon with.  Tom Brady was masterful.  His passes were precise, on target, on the money.  It was like watching a wily craftsman take apart a swiss clock.

Continue reading "Tebowed Out"

You have future Hall of Famer QB Drew Brees practically giving you the game scoring TD after TD late in the game.  However, the 49'ers answered back.  They won 36-32 thanks to a Saints defense that played terrible in the last 3:00 of the game.  Despite 5 to's the Saints were in this thing, ready to face the winner of Giants/Green Bay game.  But hold it, Alex Smith throws a couple of passes, and the offense burst a couple of long plays, a stout defense wouldn't have allowed. 

It's almost as if the Saint's Defense knew that Brees could score at anytime so it played soft, the time they could least afford to.

Honestly, the Saints were the better team but they were outplayed by a courageous, tough San Francisco team coached by a firece head coach in Jim Harbaurgh.  If Harbaugh played for the Bears they way he coaches, they would have made the playoffs with him.  He really had his team fired up and playing on every play.  The Saints took some plays off and it backfired on them and so, in the end, they were beaten. Quite simply, you can't allow a team to drive down, no, walk down the field in the late 1:30 to score a TD and win the game.  I never saw anything like that.  It seemed as if New Orleans had their bag packed for another game.  Now, they will pack for the end of the season.  I was not as impressed with the 49'ers as I saw the ineptitude of the New Orleans' defense.  You wasted a great effort by Drew Brees.

Continue reading "Saints Defense Cakes It"

Five straight defeats have put the Chicago Bears (7-8) out of the playoffs.  The Bears lost to Green Bay 35-21 with a makeshift offense that gained 441 yards, and an improved passing game due to Josh McCown, the backup QB, who played well in defeat.  McCown, showed poise, and a pretty good arm, as he battled with the Bears to a 14-10 half-time score.  Then in the 3rd quarter, Green Bay's vaunted offense went to work and Aaron Rodgers threw for 5 TD passes in the game.  It wasn't that the Bears were so bad.  It was that Green Bay was so good.  The Bears huffed and puffed to stay close to Green Bay.  Then the Pack went into overdrive and before you knew it, the score was 28-10 and game over.

Chicago scored a late TD and FG to make the score a bit more respectable.  A 35-10 lead was reduced as the Bears put up 8 points on a TD and 2 point conversion.  Robbie Gould kicked a FG to close out the scoring.  The Packers  (14-1) were a better team.  It's hard to see Jay Cutler on the sidelines.  It is better to heal fully then to rush in there and get hurt again.  It's going to be a tough off-season for Chicago.  They seemed to be playoff bound but suffered two key injuries and then the season fell apart.  Say goodbye, offensive co-ordinator Mike Martz.

Continue reading "Early Hibernation for Bears"

I'd like to see the Chicago Bears give the Green Bay Packers a game tonight.  I don't know if that is going to happen.

There are too many vulnerable spots for Chicago.  One Josh McCown, is making his first start as a Bear at QB.  Two, Kahlil Bell is making a start and he is practically a rookie.  I think what may keep Chicago in the game is that these two teams are arch-rivals.  The Bears will be fired up.  I hope they will surprise some people tonight.  I think Chicago will play The Pack tough to start, but Green Bay's talent will eventually wear the Bears out. It could be 31-10. 

So far, in the 3rd quarter, the Bears are giving the Pack a real run for their money.  Aaron Rodgers unloaded a beautiful pass for a TD to Jordy Nelson and GB took a 21-10 lead.  But Chicago has kept the ball, run effectively, and McCown has shown he definitely has a better arm than backup Hanie.  McCown hit Earl Bennett on a catch and run to get the Bears to the 1 yard line.  Geez, the Bears actually moved the ball.  Then lineman Edwin Williams saved Bell's bacon when he recovered his fumble at the goal-line and took it in for 6 points.  At least they are making Green Bay sweat.

Continue reading "Give Us a Game"

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.  The Bears certainly miss the injured Jay Cutler who is probably out for the remaining two games this season.  The Bears are in the midst of a 4 game slide that could go to 6 to end what was a promising season.  QB Cutler did a lot to to make it promising.  After a slow start, he found his groove and hit receivers open or not.  He threw with greater confidence.  His touchdown pass to Johnny Knox in the corner of the end zone in the San Diego win was a thing of beauty.  He flipped the ball which sailed into Knox, about 35 yards away.  Jay Cutler has a great arm and NFL players and coaches know it. 

It's about time the Bears fans know it.  If we had Cutler playing, even if Forte gets hurt, the Bears would have won 2 of the 4 losses and would be in the Wild Card hunt.  But that is the not the case.  He's out and so are the Bears.  Here is a lament:  What would Cutler do with Green Bay's offensive line?  We might be talking about the the rise of Cutler, the coming of Cutler, what superlatives we would write?

Continue reading "Cutler Is That Good"

If you really want to get upset with anyone is the Bears organization, look at the coach and GM.  Coach Smith needs to be more flexible in using his personnel.  The backup for Jay Cutler has been a bust.  "Disappointment" is the PC word that Smith used to desribe the QB play.  Behind closed doors, they are already thinking about next season and giving Nathan Edlerle a shot.  Haning throwing 9 interceptions in 4 games is too much.  And, at least two for for TD's.  If you give 14-21 points to the opposing team and can't score you run a deficit.  It's like the Bears are in debt in the QB slot.  And, they need a healthy Cutler to re-balance the ratio of Td's/INT's.

Losing Forte was a very big loss.  He was almot 40% of the team's offense. It is doubtful he will return this season.  There is no need to put him in a game.  The Bears will likely lose the last two games, to hit 6 straight defeats.  This was a number no one in Chicago wanted to even think about.  The loss that really hurt was the KC game.  To lose that game on a freak (Hail Mary Heave) by an untested QB, who was soon replaced by Kyle Orton of all people, was a bad loss.

Continue reading "Get Better Back-Ups"

The Chicago Bears have allowed the Seattle Seahawks take a commanding 24-14 lead late in 3rd quarter at Soldier Field.

The Bears are about to be buried for this season.  No Cutlers, No Forte, No Wright, No Johnny Knox, who left the game in an ambulance and was taken to a local hospital.  Unfortunately, Caleb Hanie, who looked so good against the Packers in the NFC game and looked mediocre at best, and simply not-ready-for-prime-time.  He lacks the skills that Cutler has.

The Bears didn't count on losing Cutler and Forte, and without adequate replacements, or an ablity to adjust on the fly, the season is spiralling downward.  The Bears are about to lose their 4th straight game and move to 7-7.  Wtih two away games left.  There is nothing pretty about this game.  The Bears had a 14-7 lead but Seattle stormed back and took a 21-14 lead.  A FG only prolonged the inevitable.  The Bears have been out-personneled and out hustled. 

Continue reading "Kiss This Season Goobye"