Sammy Sofa

It's not a "knee-jerk reaction" when I've been down on the offense for most of the season; they're simply too inconsistent, and as great as the defense has been too much of this season has been reliant on an otherworldly and unsustainable level of defensive scoring. Now they've likely made the OL even worse and they still have a terrible OC running the offense too often. I mean, the crux of my argument is that the OL is terrible, Tice is terrible and the defense can't sustain the level of scoring production that all but carried the team for a while there. If people want to disagree with the idea they wouldn't be likely to get anywhere in the playoffs, fine, but it's not like my reasoning is based out of anything that I don't think anyone would disagree with here. I don't even know why we need to write paragraphs about this: Make the playoffs and you have a chance to do something - so just make the post season Its not like, likely that we win the superbowl but whatever make the playoffs Well, yeah; I thought it was clear that I'm not rooting for them to not make the playoffs or that I don't WANT them to win. I just don't think it's likely they get anywhere if they're facing a team that didn't back their way in. It's football, so who knows how things will play out or who will be injured or what the weather will be like and what a seemingly infinite list of factors will be like...I'm just not a fan of the odds I've made up in my head. It's mostly that I'm frustrated that this is a team full of talent that has really, really stupid and obvious weaknesses that could and should have been avoided so they're not wasting that talent.

Niiiiiiiiice.

It's not a "knee-jerk reaction" when I've been down on the offense for most of the season; they're simply too inconsistent, and as great as the defense has been too much of this season has been reliant on an otherworldly and unsustainable level of defensive scoring. Now they've likely made the OL even worse and they still have a terrible OC running the offense too often. I mean, the crux of my argument is that the OL is terrible, Tice is terrible and the defense can't sustain the level of scoring production that all but carried the team for a while there. If people want to disagree with the idea they wouldn't be likely to get anywhere in the playoffs, fine, but it's not like my reasoning is based out of anything that I don't think anyone would disagree with here.

Uh, yeah, I didn't say anyone was being "illogical" and the only one who has been called "crazy" is me, so nice spin there, chief. I'd love to be wrong, but that offensive line and the existence of Mike Tice gives me The Fear. Your responses have taken that tone, NG. It's ok to admit you made a silly knee-jerk comment, which you did. Really? What tone is that? The one where I say "I don't think the team will do anything in the playoffs?" How much more matter of fact could I say that or anything else I've posted today? Like I said, I'd love to be wrong.

Beating the Vikings isn't going to do much to change my opinion, plus how the defense has looked in the GB and SF games. They're much more likely to face that than the Vikings or the Panthers or the week 1 Colts. How did the defense play poorly in the GB game? Where am I talking about the defense? How much more clearly do I have to say that the OL and the offensive playcalling are the critical weaknesses? The defense has been stellar most games, but they can't do everything. Even if they had been on in the SF game the Bears are almost certainly losing that game; you can't count on defensive scoring like that. . Oh, yeah, I was talking about the defense; my mistake mentioning the GB game. It still stands as a demonstration of how the offensive flaws are too glaring. A good team has too good a chance to shut down the Bears' offense. The Bears' defense has been great, but look at the differences between their "bend, don't break" approach and how teams can take out the Bears; there's not even any chance for "bending" because they can just swamp the offense and either shut it down or make it implode because of Tice and the OL. That's the really frustrating part, because it's not like this is just a bad offense being taken out; you have incredibly talented parts that can't be anywhere near being fully utilized because of inexplicably poor organizational choices with the OL and coaching. I'm not crazy mad about the team or furious; I'm just depressed that to me it seems likely to be another wasted year of a very, very good defense and having guys like Cutler and Forte and Marshall.

Uh, yeah, I didn't say anyone was being "illogical" and the only one who has been called "crazy" is me, so nice spin there, chief. I'd love to be wrong, but that offensive line and the existence of Mike Tice gives me The Fear.

Beating the Vikings isn't going to do much to change my opinion, plus how the defense has looked in the GB and SF games. They're much more likely to face that than the Vikings or the Panthers or the week 1 Colts. How did the defense play poorly in the GB game? Where am I talking about the defense? How much more clearly do I have to say that the OL and the offensive playcalling are the critical weaknesses? The defense has been stellar most games, but they can't do everything. Even if they had been on in the SF game the Bears are almost certainly losing that game; you can't count on defensive scoring like that.

I'll put it this way: the OL isn't getting any better and Tice is still going to be there, and those are critical factors too easily exploited by quality playoff-caliber teams.

Oh... now you're one of the crazies. Nah; the OL was already a critical weakness, and now it's somehow going to be improved to manageable by swapping in spare parts? Sorry, it doesn't work like that. Couple that with the terrible, terrible and easily countered playcalling and they're likely to get trounced by any quality team that didn't back their way into the playoffs. Yeah, it's football and anything can happen, but the Bears have looked like hot garbage in the two losses they've had against genuinely good teams this year...there's losing and then there's getting destroyed. Cutler being in there against the Niners wouldn't have made much of a difference; they're simply going to have to face too many good teams in the postseason for them to have a real chance to do much of anything. Their offense is simply too flawed and scattershot to pull it off. Understood. But think of it this way. The Texans cheap-shotted Cutler, got him out of the game and eeked out a win. Then the 49ers cleaned up with no Cutler. Yes, the Bears are flawed. But with Cutler, it's possible -- though unlikely -- that they could challenge a good team in the playoffs. I'm not going to throw this team away after seeing them without our best player against 2 of the top teams. I want to see them with our best player against those teams. Then I'll admit defeat if they lose. Do people honestly think the SF game would have been much different with Cutler in there? That line was collapsing almost instantly left and right.

Oh... now you're one of the crazies. Nah; the OL was already a critical weakness, and now it's somehow going to be improved to manageable by swapping in spare parts? Sorry, it doesn't work like that. Couple that with the terrible, terrible and easily countered playcalling and they're likely to get trounced by any quality team that didn't back their way into the playoffs. Yeah, it's football and anything can happen, but the Bears have looked like hot garbage in the two losses they've had against genuinely good teams this year...there's losing and then there's getting destroyed. Cutler being in there against the Niners wouldn't have made much of a difference; they're simply going to have to face too many good teams in the postseason for them to have a real chance to do much of anything. Their offense is simply too flawed and scattershot to pull it off. The Bears managed to keep the Texans game close even after losing Cutler to a cheap shot. They look like hot garbage without Cutler. They (the offense) looked like hot garbage with Cutler in that game.

Beating the Vikings isn't going to do much to change my opinion, plus how the defense has looked in the GB and SF games. They're much more likely to face that than the Vikings or the Panthers or the week 1 Colts.

Oh... now you're one of the crazies. Nah; the OL was already a critical weakness, and now it's somehow going to be improved to manageable by swapping in spare parts? Sorry, it doesn't work like that. Couple that with the terrible, terrible and easily countered playcalling and they're likely to get trounced by any quality team that didn't back their way into the playoffs. Yeah, it's football and anything can happen, but the Bears have looked like hot garbage in the two losses they've had against genuinely good teams this year...there's losing and then there's getting destroyed. Cutler being in there against the Niners wouldn't have made much of a difference; they're simply going to have to face too many good teams in the postseason for them to have a real chance to do much of anything. Their offense is simply too flawed and scattershot to pull it off.

Who cares; they won't do [expletive] with it.

Well, you're a Bears fans so you've seen almost nothing but terrible OC's for a long time now. OL is now even worse than terrible.

Yeah, sorry, I don't care if they're 7-3, I don't care if this win this game; this team isn't going anywhere if they make the playoffs.

Welp, I expect Tice to be terrified to call anymore running plays for the rest of the game.

Most of us aren't miserbalists who obsess over such things.

It's mentioned in the comments, but this guy is still my favorite fan-douche: http://boston.3432.voxcdn.com/files/2010/10/yankeedouche4.gif The big fat psychopath behind him is just a bonus.

The Bears don't have Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers. It's ridiculous to bring up guys who have been or are the best quarterbacks in the entire NFL as if that's some kind of "oh, why don't they do THAT?"-scenario. You have to play to the strengths and weaknesses of your key players, and Cutler is clearly a guy whose significant talents are best utilized by getting him as much protection as possible. The Bears have not attempted to do that and have actually exacerbated the issue by barely doing anything to improve an OL that has been glaringly problematic for a long time now (2 draft picks, even in the first round, is not all that impressive given their drafting history and how the line has desperately needed improvement at pretty much every position), essentially ignoring TE and making horrible, horrible choices when it comes to the OC. Cutler, as talented as he is, simply is not the kind of guy that can essentially make do with anything that's thrown out there and the Bears need to stop pretending like he is. He's an incredibly valuable QB, but you need to play to his strengths.

That was something hardly unique to LaHair; baseball is littered with flash in the pan-guys who, in hindsight, were easy to figure out yet inexplicably had weeks or months of regular success. Probably mostly based out of pitchers thinking something along the lines of, "yeah, but this turd won't be able to hit MY fastball."

They might have just been doing him a favor and letting him make some money and actually play over there. I think this is what happened. Theo is the one who apparently talked him out of going to Japan last year, so he probably felt like he owed him a shot to make millions of dollars, which would not have happened for a long time in the United States. I bet there would've been a deal out there, but the return would've been uninspiring, so Theo chose to help a guy out. Christ, this isn't sending the family dog to go live on grandma's farm or something. Well, maybe it is, since that story was always bull [expletive] and it means the beast was mercifully being put down.

He never had any value. Sadly, this is the only bit of Cubs-related good news we've had in a while.

Awesome guy, and handwriting like a BOSS. Probably smells good, too.

So, what, this is another potential advantage the Cubs are going to miss out on? Sweet.

So much denial whoosh.