7-9 337 points.
i certainly hope i'm wrong... but much like last year, or just about every year for that matter, i start off the season worried about the usual holes in the defense (CB) and naturally expect the offense to end up with ~150 points for the season. maybe it has something to do with my being in chicago and being around the team's perpetual media storm and i gravitate towards citing areas of weakness because i want this team to shore up and be good.... but like, yeah.
with the exception of 05-06, this team has been a jekyll-n-hyde deal since lovie got here. bad in 04, good in 05/06, bad in 07, 9-7 behind the mighty ORFENSE!!! in 08 (but no playoffs), bad in 09 (7-9? 6-10?), good in 10... so that means we're likely going to be below .500 in 11!
i certainly hope i'm wrong. this would be a good time for jay cutler to step up and say "i'm one of the best damn quarterbacks in the league. remember my shootouts with philip rivers?! (sunday sept 14 2008 comes to mind) don't worry guys, i've got this... when your team has jay cutler you're good for at least 9 wins and you have a shot at the title every year"
granted, the bears' brilliant strategy of "let's not surround jay with weapons, and furthermore let's settle for mickey martz and allow him to stubbornly execute his gameplans that call for quarterbacks to take 7 step drops and get smeared! it won a title.... under dick vermeil, and it sure was entertaining throughout the marc bulger era!!" AHEM, the bears' aforementioned brilliant strategy has made it a bit tougher... i can't say i was up on ~06-08 broncos football, but i reckon having brandon marshall really came in handy when a play was broken and jay was running for his life, and then he could find a get-the-damn-ball receiver like marshall and dump off passes there. i remember eddie royal was balling in his last season under cutler.... and this all happened with a traditionally-strong offensive line (with or without their legendary chop blocks =) so i'd like to see the bears at least roll the dice and gamble on drafting a thoroughbred WR, or shit why not go after plaxico's dumb-ass? something!!!! the kid from santa claus needs some toys under the christmas tree.
idk. at this point i dunno if keeping martz around long-term and having jay learn this offense for better or worse is the thing to do. i'd much rather have a more dynamic newschool offensive coordinator who likes, example, bootlegs... but there comes a point where you can't have the guy learning a new offense every year. arghhhh. i wonder if jerry angelo can eventually figure out how to draft well before cutler's championship window closes... that's still a few years off, but still, the bears haven't only NOT surrounded jay with bigtime weapons, they've devolved the damned offensive line while they're at it!
it woulda been nice to see the bears make another !!!!@ big ol move like the falcons did for julio jones. it remains to be seen what his NFL prospects are, but they identified someone who they wanted to help set up their franchise for playoff success (matt ryan has won something like 33 games in his first 3 seasons. they just get sonned in the playoffs) and they went and got him. even with a bunch of cap space the bears didn't identify and lock on to any WRs that they wanted, that is, until roy williams was free.
if you believe bernstein and others, the bears didn't want martz and only went to him as a last resort.... now that they've got someone they don't want, they're willing to bend and shape the roster to his whims and fancies? he doesn't like big 6'4" get-the-damn-ball receivers? so fucking what... YOU DIDN'T WANT THIS GUY AND YET YOU'RE LETTING HIM SHAPE YOUR FUCKING OFFENSIVE ROSTER!#!@#
so imma hope and pray that the bears can be above .500 and get to the playoffs again, but i won't be surprised if/when they don't. i've also picked the packers to repeat, so this could be a long year. i'll have to get used to getting along with packers fans via the one thing everyone can agree on: fuck the vikings and their annoying-as-shit fans!
_________________ Curious Hair wrote: Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?
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