ESPN is reporting two games for Suh. Sounds about right to me.
Go West? UCLA, Arizona State jobs would intrigue Bears’ Martz
This is some seriously shitty and misleading reporting, but if there’s any truth to it it could be very interesting. I’m about ready to be done with Martz for better or worse, though that’s under the assumption that my dream of hiring Norv Turner as OC is a possibility, and this could be just the escape strategy for him. There’s nothing in the story implying that Martz actually said anything along these lines, but it might be a way for the Bears to nudge him out without out and out firing him.
Well, that sucked. Reports are Forte is out for 2 to 6 weeks.
On the other hand, every other team in the hunt for the NFC wildcard lost, so that helps. It’s looking more likely that there will be a 9-7 wild card team. And right now the Bears have the tiebreak over the Falcons from head to head, and over the Lions and the Giants over NFC record. Which will probably not change unless they lose to both the Seahawks and the Vikes, in which case I don’t think the tiebreak will be an issue.
Also, can we stop hearing about “Chicago Native” Donovan McNabb? Yeah, he grew up in Chicago and went to Mount Carmel, that’s not any sort of meaningful connection to the Bears.
As a Lions fan, I have to start thinking that this amount of mental errors is a reflection of poor coaching. I was speechless at points during tonight’s game.
I certainly put the lack of discipline and the late hits on the coach. Every team makes mental errors like false starts or holding, but the stuff like Titus Young’s unnecessary roughness, Logan’s ball flip, and Pettigrew’s dance with the official are all reflections of a lack of discipline and control that I put on the coach.
Schwartz is a chippy buffoon and now has a team of chippy buffoons. I don’t think that is a coincidence.
Who knew it would be so early in the season, but congratulations to the Green Bay Packers, your NFC North Champions. The Giants on the road were the biggest hurdle left on their schedule, so it was a good win. Some bad defensive play in that secondary (I’m looking at you Charlie Peprah!) and way too many points given up, but Aaron fucking Rodgers is the truth. Let Tebow get the press, I’ll take Rodgers’ any day of the week and twice on Sunday. The O Line only gave up two sacks, but there was a lot of pressure on Rodgers throughout the game. I’d like to see much better run blocking too. It will be interesting how they approach the rest of the games; whether they’ll rest starters, play conservative, and/or roll over for the other NFC North teams. Great year to be a Packer fan.
Meanwhile, the Vikings’ secondary looks horrible and their rookie quarterback threw two very bad interceptions costing them yet another game with a second half comeback. That secondary could be one of the worst in the NFL and that will be priority #1 this off season. The Vikings will be in full on rebuilding mode, if they aren’t already. Ponder has more growing pains, the defense let Demaryius Thomas run free, and they couldn’t tackle McGahee. At least they took advantage of a Von Miller-less Broncos to put up a lot of points.
The Lions lose again, and show their punkness again. They also showed their secondary isn’t good (noticing a theme about the secondaries in the NFC North?), they are stupid, and they lack discipline. Still, Stafford had a good game (I think that finger injury was really bothering him) and Nick Fairley finally decided to show up, so there is hope for the future.
And the Bears. I feel bad for Forte getting injured while not having a long term contract, but hopefully it won’t be too serious and he’s played through sprained MCL before. Without him and Cutler, this team looked absolutely horrible on offense, even against a bad Chiefs team. When your QB is outplayed by Tyler Palko, something is seriously wrong. Roy Williams is a joke, Hanie has the guts to throw downfield, but not the accuracy to do it well, and that O line gave up 7 sacks. The defense had another good outing, and only gave up a fluke Hail Mary, but that was enough for the lowly Chiefs to beat the beaten Bears.
Luckily for the Bears, the Packers beat the Giants and the Texans beat the Falcons. The Lions would be outside looking in on tiebreakers though.
It should be a fascinating week. Will Hanie continue to start? Will the NFC North recover? And will the Packers take the foot off the gas with a two game lead in for home field advantage.
On the Lions, I’m still upset about last night’s game. I’m more embarrassed to be a fan of theirs now than I was during the 0-16 season. Stafford did have a fantastic game (400+ yards passing; may have approached 500 if Burleson hadn’t committed all of those penalties). Stafford does look like the real deal here, and I hope he can stay healthy.
Hamlet, do you watch the Chicago press conferences? I remember Roy’s interviews from his Detroit days. He always seemed really, really stupid in interviews. Like, I-don’t-think-he-could-hold-a-real-job level stupid. Add that to the fact that he’s never caught an important pass, but celebrates first downs in garbage time like they matter, and you’ve got one of the most insufferable receivers in the game. I’m still glad the Lions fleeced the Cowboys on that trade, but I’m wondering if he’s still that bad in interviews.
I haven’t watched Bears press conferences in awhile, but I heard an interview with him on the radio during training camp this year. He sounded fine to me, with a few ummms and errrs, but nothing to make me think he’s dumb. He’s certainly has an unsupportable high opinion of himself, but he spoke mostly in the football cliches that veterans guys who have been around awhile do. I also caught a couple of snippets of him where he’s making excuses for sucking so bad, but, to his credit, he admitted that int was his own fault yesterday.
In news guaranteed to rock the NFL, Graham Harrell was promoted from the Packers practice squad to their roster.
What I found interesting, in the press release, was that he was on the Packers’ practice squad last year, as well, and elevated to the active roster late in the year in 2010, too. (Though, last year, I suspect his elevation was due to Rodgers’ concussion.)
Rumor has it that another team (Bills as I read it) were interested in signing him to their active roster. With Quarless going on IR, I think it is a good move, especially in light of Flynn being a UFA next year (I like Flynn to have a shot to be a starter next year).
Same old. Same old.
The Packers continue their march with another easy win to keep the streak alive. The defense gets 4 interceptions, Rodgers has an OK game, and Ryan Grant has a nice game for once in a long while. The train just keeps on rollin’. Hopefully, they won’t get complacent.
The Lions get a big win against a shaky Viking team. They caught a couple breaks in that one (that was an obvious facemask), and it was ugly, but it’s a win. That moves them into 2nd in the NFC North, and, with the Cowboys implosion, ties them for a wild card spot. That defense needs to play better.
The Vikings, well, they’re done. Not even the mighty Joe Webb can save them and that horrid secondary. Ponder took a step back with 3 interceptions, but I’m not sure Frazier is doing the right thing with him by having him play injured and then replacing him with Webb. That’s a mess of a team.
And the Bears. Oh the Bears. They got Tebowned. It’s odd to see a team that is usually pretty good just fall apart at the seems. Part of it was playcalling, part of it was coaching, most of it was just out and out stupidity. The loss really hurt the Bears (and me, dammit! The one time I bet on them …) and their playoff chances, and they look lost without Forte and Cutler. It’s becoming clear that Cutler can make that O Line look presentable in a way that Hanie cannot. What an enjoyable loss.
With the Bears’ collapses of late, the NFC North is losing it’s prestige. But they still have the best team in the NFL, the best quarterback in the NFL, and the best fans in the NFL, so that’s something.
NFL rules question:
So, the officials missed the facemask call at the end of the Vikings game yesterday. The slow-mo replay I saw (Vikings Vs Lions Face Mask No Call - YouTube) clearly showed the ball out of Webb’s hand before the facemask. According to the rules, if the events were as I describe (fumble and then facemask penalty), should the Vikes have retained possession?
The discussion I’ve seen to this point doesn’t mention the fact the ball was loose when the facemask occurred.
Thanks in advance for your expertise.
The penalty should have been called, you cannot grab a guys facemask and twist under any circumstances. Now if the ball had changed possession and then the facemask occurred I believe it would have been Lions ball with a 15 yard penalty, but as it was, it should have been a penalty and an untimed play for the Vikings.
Mike McCarthy says that Greg Jennings has a knee sprain, with an anticipated recovery time of 2-3 weeks. With a first-round bye already sewn up, the Pack has five weeks until they play their first playoff game, so here’s hoping he’s ready to go by then.
http://blog.packers.com/2011/12/12/jennings-out-a-couple-of-weeks/
This week keeps getting better and better.
Can we finally fire Jerry Angelo now?
I think the “Jerry Angelo is thinking about retirement” was more accurately “we think you should think about retiring, Jerry” from the Bears.
He doesn’t deserve that courtesy. I’m thinking tarred and feathered is more apt.
Yeah, fuck that guy. All he’s done is put together teams that won two division titles in 5 years and made it to the Super Bowl one of those times.
The Lions defense has been better than the offense all season. The Lions defense just happens to be beat up right now in a big way. They were missing Houston, Delmas, Suh, Durant, Jackson, Berry, and Wright for stretches of the game. That’s 7 key defensive players including their top 3 CBs, their best S, their best DT, their starting OLB and their 3rd DE. For the second game this season, they had to resort to a WR (Rashied Davis) playing DB for part of the game. And still they managed to force 6 turnovers, which was the difference in the game. The Lions offense on the other hand didn’t do much against a porous Vikings secondary. Why Linehan didn’t throw more is beyond me.
The Lions defense looked great in holding the Packers offense to about 80 yards of offense in the first half on Thanksgiving and then lost Delmas, Houston, and Suh within minutes of game time. Any team that loses three players playing at near pro-bowl level is suddenly not going to look so good. Especially facing Green Bay and New Orleans in back to back weeks.
The Lions have the 23rd rated scoring defense in the league, while the offense is 4th rated scoring offense. Here’s the point total they’ve given up since they’re bye week: 28, 31, 27, 35 and 37. To me, that kinda means they have to play better. YMMV.