Bears are 7-2 on Monday nights under Lovie Smith. It’s the Sunday and Thursday nights where they suck eggs.
7-3 now.
Don’t underestimate the Bears. They certainly can suck eggs on Monday nights too.
Fun game to watch last night as the Bears were dominated in every phase of the game, including coaching. Two fun facts: the Bears have faced three teams this year with winning records. They are 0-3. And the only NFC North QB with a worse passer rating than Jay Cutler? Jason Campbell.
The Packers go into Detroit and get a close win. I was very worried about this game, rightfully so apparently, because NFC North teams play hard at home. But Aaron Rodgers comes through in the clutch with a game winning drive and the Lions are teetering on the edge of playoff irrelevance. Once again, I was impressed with the young backups on this team playing due to injuries. Dezmon Moses showed some of the promise he had in training camp by rushing the passer well (although his run defense and pass coverage need work). Casey Hayward and Jerron McMillan both had interceptions. And MD Jennings had the play of the game with a pick 6. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses as Dietrich Smith (another backup playing due to injury) was awful against the fatasses on the Lions D Line, and Mason Crosby continued to have problems.
For Detroit, Matthew Stafford had an awful game, with bad accuracy and poor decision making, which, in the end, was the difference in the game. It was a great game for Nick Fairley, who dominated both Dietrich Smith and Jeff Saturday, and Suh had a good game too. Leshoure continues to be impressive in the run game. They lost Jeff Backus to a hammy injury which could be huge for the future (Riley Reiff was a bit overmatched, but he’s a rookie). And Titus Young has earned the wrath of his coaches with poor play and stupidity. That team is having problems.
The Vikings were on bye.
Coming up, the Lions have a short week and a tough game against the Texans. There is some hope with being at home on a short week and a Thanksgiving game, but the Texans are a good team, although some of the Super Bowl shine is off after an abysmal defensive showing against the Jaguars. I think the Texans get a win and the chaos in Detroit continues, but maybe they can pull it together for one game.
The Packers have a tough go on Sunday night, going to New York to play the Giants. The Giants are on a two game losing streak, but are coming off a bye and looking to turn it around. Maybe Eli continues his poor play and the makeshift O Line can contain Giant pass rushers, but I’m not so confident.
Finally, the Bears get the Vikings at home as the NFC North interdivisional games heat up. That should be an interesting game, but I’m still not sold on the Vikes and the Bears will be playing hard after that embarassment on Monday night. Can’t wait.
To say the least. He had a number of throws in the second half which were so wildly off-target, I was starting to think that there was something physically wrong with him. He’d come up limping after a hit earlier in the game, so perhaps he wasn’t able to get his feet set properly to throw, but man, he did not look good.
Including their win over the Colts, who at 6 - 4, clearly have a losing record. 
Ah, they’re 1-3, including that win against a rookie QB in his first NFL start and the same team that just lost 59-24.
Well that was not a fun game to watch. The Packers looked outmatched, but I think the game last night had a lot more to do with the Giants playing a great game. They had two weeks to prepare, they are an experienced team with quality coaching, with a bit of desperation, so it is not surprise they played a great game.Kind of like the game when the Packers beat up on the Texans, in that the TExans are not nearly as bad as they looked and the Packers played their bast game of the season.
Having said that there is clear issues, especially on the offensive line that need to be fixed. The injuries on defense I think really showed last night. The offensive liine is the biggest issue that needs to be fixed, followed by the need to get pressure on the opposing quarterback (wothout Matthews that has proven difficult). A bad game for sure, and it revealed our issues, but it was mostly a great game by the Giants that made it so lopsided.
Good, needed, win for the Bears but they suffered Packers-level injuries this week. Matt Forte was taken out of the game, Hester got a concussion, Tillman was out until the victory formation on the last snap of the game, both guards were knocked out of the game (and Lance Louis is now heading to IR), Briggs was seen in a boot after the game, and Chilo Rachal was put on non-injury IR last week because he left the team after a demotion and then came back the next day.
Tillman and Briggs should be OK, I assume, and I think Hester will be OK but will likely miss this week against the Seahawks – I’d like to see someone else in at WR instead; there’s a huge drop off in production after Marshall and part of me thinks it wouldn’t hurt to try something else there, like bringing up Joe Anderson from the practice squad. We’ll also have to see what they do for guard now. Carimi filled in fairly well during the game and the Bears also activated James Brown from the practice squad. Since he’s a tackle and NOT a guard, they may likely plug him in at center.
Interesting weekend of football.
Things I enjoyed:
Jim Schwartz’s stupidity costing his team a victory. Rare are the times when you can point to a specific coaching miscue and blame them for a loss, but this was one. It was soooooo amusing to see the douchebag who yelled at the 49ers head coach that he needed to “know the rules!” costing a replay challenge by breaking the rules. Ahhh, sweet, sweet karma.
Adrian Peterson. Damn he is fun to watch play. I’m not sure why Leslie Frazier didn’t go more to him early in that game, though.
Jay Cutler had a very nice game indeed and him and Brandon Marshall were fun to watch. Barely getting the ball out with a lot of speed into triple coverage and Marshall making the catch is impressive, as were some of his other throws while under pressure. I also loved him tying one of his O Linemen’s shoes. Good game for the Bears.
Things I didn’t enjoy:
Suh’s nut kicking. Personally, I think it was intentional and is just more evidence of what a cheap shot artist he is.
Jared Allen’s cheap shot on Lance Louis. I don’t ever want to hear that guy bitch about being illegally blocked when he launches himself at another player’s head when he gets the chance to be a blocker.
The entirety of the Packer Giants game. I knew it wouldn’t be easy and wasn’t expecting the win, but the Giants came to play, the Packers didn’t, and they got embarrassed on national television. Hopefully they’ll use it as a learning experience, especially Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy, who need to figure out how to beat the two deep safety look. Sure would like to see the Packers healthy for this stretch run.
All is right in the NFC North once again, with the Packers taking their rightful place atop the division.
The Lions were the Lions. Another amazing game by Megatron (If anyone deserves to beat Jerry Rice’s season yardage record, it’s him), blown by a poor secondary and a late game defensive collapse. I hear Jim Schwartz is considering taking up smoking 10 packs a day to get the “our coach is fighting cancer” boost that the Colts had. It will be interesting to see if their collapse continues and how Schwartz will fare from here on out.
Speaking of wasting an amazing game by a stud, the Vikings overcome another studly game by Adrian Peterson, and lose to the Packers. This loss was mostly on the shoulders of Christian Ponder, who made some mind-boggling stupid throws, including a couple picks in the red zone that cost his team. Lack of talent after Percy Harvin at the WR position and a bad call cost them dearly too. I still think Ponder has a future in the NFL (those WR’s aren’t helping though), but he can’t afford another game like that if he doesn’t want to get benched.
The Packers get a win, but more interestingly to me, they did so in a distinctly UnPacker like way. They ran the ball, didn’t make Rodgers a target, and Morgan Burnett got two crucial interceptions to seal the game. Kudos to McCarthy for making adjustments and taking advantage of the situation he was thrust into (is it just me or did they run a ton behind injury replacement Barclay at RT?), and attempting to get Crosby back in line. Of course this is the Packers, so there were more injuries (TJ Lang and Jordy Nelson left the game), and some bad missed tackles (Peterson’s huge TD should never have happened). If they want to beat good teams, they need to get healthier, but I was encouraged by the coaching in this game.
Speaking of coaching, Lovie Smith gets horribly outcoached in the Bears loss to Seahawks. Foregoing a field goal to go for it on 4th and short, not adjusting to the read option, and not being able to contain a rookie QB all contributed to this loss. It was an odd loss for the Bears, where the defense collapses at the end of the game, something that doesn’t happen all that much to the Bears. Injuries played their part (Urlacher, Jennings, Conte, and Bennett left the game), but I’m not so sure this isn’t the beginning of the end for that defense. But one thing Lovie can do is avoid bad losses, so they’ll still keep moving forward into the playoffs.
Despite Crosby’s success yesterday, I still think it is time for him to go. Let’s bring Longwell back.
I hereby give Adrian Peterson permission to punch Christian Ponder in the face. Really hard.
Start of second half, the Vikes up 14-10. Kickoff out of bounds, the Vikes get it at the 40. Peterson runs it down to the 11 or so. If the Vikes go up 21-10, they can just keep pounding Peterson and make the Packers chase the game. Instead, Ponder rolls right and throws it to the Packers. It seems that Ponder can only throw it to one person, Kyle Rudolph. If a Packer is in the way, he will still try to throw it to him. Gah!
I’m amazed the Vikings won 6 games this year. I’ll be even more amazed if they get to 8 wins.
Percy Harvin is the only receiver worth a crap on the Vikings. Jerome Simpson was a waste of free agency money and can’t catch, Michael Jenkins is old and slow and bad, and Devin Aromashadu is a journeyman retread. Jarius Wright might be a nice find, but he’s a bit unreliable. I do feel bad for All Day, but I do think the arrow is pointing up for the Vikings.
Ryan Grant is now back with the Pack.
I didn’t think they could be any more banged up than two years ago. Amazingly they are.
And, now, Harvin’s done for the year.
Speaking of wide receivers and IR, the Lions put Ryan Broyles on IR with a torn ACL, and Titus Young goes on IR with a sprained attitude and hyper-extended douchebaggery. I wonder if the NFL is going to spend any time at all making IR actually be “injured” reserve, rather than “we’ll call it an injury, but we just want the roster flexibility” reserve. I doubt it.
If the NFL does anything to tighten up what constitutes injuries, Bill Belicheck is going to howl in protest.
Especially since, at this point in the season, 98% of NFL players are probably suffering from some level of injury which, if it had happened to a “normal” person (i.e., not a pro athlete), we would probably consider it to be significant.
Despite another completely pedestrian game by Christian Ponder, the Vikings get another huge game from Adrian Peterson, with a little help from Jay Cutler, and beat the Bears. After starting 7-1, the Bears have gone 1-4 and look a lot like bumslayers. The defense is looking old, the offense can’t pick up the slack, and Jay Cutler, despite being given almost everything he wanted, including a WR who makes almost any QB look good, is still Jay Cutler. The Bears have one more home game (against the Packers next week), but get to feast on the Cardinals the following week. Not an easy schedule, and if they lose to the Packers, they’ll have a tough wild card battle on their hands. Fun to see.
The Vikings have some reason to hope, but they’ll still need Ponder to improve if they want any hope of making the playoffs or being regarded a legitimate contender. A nice defensive effort today, though, and some nice play from their most recent draft picks has been a huge boon to them. But it still will come down to Ponder.
Kickoff in an hour for the Packers v. Lions. A Packers win would be huge, but any more injuries could be devastating. Matthews, Woodson and Nelson have all been ruled out tonight, so they’ll once again not be at full strength. Hopefully Detroit will self-implode making it easy, but I kinda doubt it. Go Pack Go.
And the Packers get the win on a snowy night in Green Bay. After a well-planned, well executed, and disciplined first quarter, the Lions choke away a two touchdown lead from then on out. I was quite impressed with how well the Lions started this game. They ran the ball, made good decisions, and, most importantly, controlled the ball, thereby keeping it out of Aaron Rodger’s hands.
Then the second half came and the Lions inexplicably quit running the ball, the Packers got a couple of big runs for touchdowns, and the Packers got the win. The Packers stuck with the running game, got the ball to Randall Cobb, and got a big interception to help them out.
Of course there were some typical moments for both teams. The Lions got penalized for excessive celebration and roughing the passer and the Packers could not get a pass rush if their life depended upon it.
For the Lions, it’s another lost opportunity and another chance to re-evaluate the coaching staff which, once again, failed to make adjustments, abandoned the run too early, and couldn’t get it done in crunch time. For the Packers, it’s another tougher than it should have been win, but it’s a win. And they’re getting a bit healthier for the upcoming games.
Bears and Lions lose, the Packers win, and all is right in the NFC North.