Oops, my mistake. You were very gracious in pointing that out, thanks.
Yardage being down for good field position, sure. Yardage per attempt being down for field position? Makes no sense. That’s why I added in that bit about the YPA and YPC. Their rushing offense stinks, and their passing game isn’t in the top 15 in the NFL. That article doesn’t really say much for their effciency. But Chicago’s being second to last in total first downs and in the bottom 10 in the league in 3rd down percentage does speak for their lack of efficiency. As for the scoring thing, well, maybe their scoring is inflated by playing Detroit and I didn’t notice it before I posted. Outside of that one outlier game, their scoring offense has been average, too.
This is all moot since I thought you were talking about the Bears and being a typical homer, sorry. I should have known nobody would actually think the Chicago offense was anything better than average at best.
Chicago is 25th in offensive DVOA, which takes into account situation. Of course, that’s heavily influenced by Cutler’s disastrous Week 1 game, which you may or may not want to discount. Their passing DVOA on the season is basically league average, which means they’ve been passing the ball rather well from Week 2 on. The Bears are 22nd in Yards/Drive, 12th in Points/Drive, and 22nd in “Drive Success Rate” (i.e., the percentage of down series that result in a 1st Down or Touchdown).
Ultimately, though, I think the most salient fact is that it’s too early to draw any confident conclusions about Chicago’s offense. We don’t know whether the Week 1 debacle was a fluke or a sign of inconsistency. We don’t know just how good or bad the defenses the they’ve faced are. Etc.
ESPN has this “InLine” feature on their game preview page, it lists the game as even. Not really sure what that feature is, I initially assumed it was just their average of Gambling lines but it seems not.
After some snooping it seems it’s some composite of what fans/readers select. There’s a slider that allows you to select a number, but it doesn’t give any context or instructions on what you should be selecting. Spread, margin of victory etc. It’s essentially meaningless since it’s only available to Insiders and therefore probably heavily influenced to sample sizes and disparities in readership from one fanbase to another. I’m sure that line reflects that way more Giants fans have the Inside package and voted than Saints fans more than anything else.
The addition of Gaines Adams has cost Michael Gaines a roster spot. The big, blocking 4th TE filled a hole for the Bears but he was sparsely used so the move shouldn’t have much impact. I wish the Bears had a big TE who could move the point of attack in short yardage situations and shift to the FB position at need but Gaines never grew into that. We’re carrying 3 TEs all of whom are basically oversized WRs which seems a bit redundant, but both Olsen and Davis look like they have huge upside. As of now the Bears are without a blocking TE aside from the aged and subpar Desmond Clark, with the issues in the running game this is disappointing.
Speculation is that Gaines Adams will not be in uniform against Atlanta this week, he still needs to pass a physical and will have essentially no time to learn the scheme and terminology. Understandable since the Bears aren’t particularly weak at that position and he’s a bit of a upside guy/future asset. Still, I’m just dying to see what we got in this guy. And against a former divisional rival in Atlanta perhaps he’d have some additional experience in playing against them that would have been an asset even on short notice.
At the very least it’ll give the Bears staff time to add a “A.” to Anthony Adams jersey and for Gaines Adams and Jarron Gilbert to negotiate for numbers.
I understand that, but it’s at the expense of many New York football fans. Putting the Jets and Giants on at the same time is akin to putting the Phillies and Eagles on at the same time, like if the SNF that day were Eagles @ Giants. It’s just a dick move. If they’re going to accomodate Philly fans, at least move the Jets game to 4pm to accomodate NY fans, y’know?
Sometimes I get the feeling that Omni thinks NYC houses half of the US population.
You mean it doesn’t? C’mon, even if that’s true, it’s at least half of the US viewing audience, right? I heard that the Nielson boxes are only distributed in NYC. Is that true?
Nielson boxes aren’t distributed anywhere but Barnes & Nobles and Starbucks whence they pick up signals. There just happen to be a lot of them in New York. Now you know.
I save my writeups for my weekly picks post on my blog, but I’ll post some quick spots here so we get more movement on picks. Thanks for writing yours up each week, Omni, it’s been fun to read them.
Cincinnati 24 - HOUSTON “Not the Bears” TEXANS 21
Probably a let down game, but at least Cincy is at home. Might mitigate that effect.
**Minnesota **20 - Baltimore 17
**New York Giants **24 - **New Orleans **17
**Pittsburgh **31 - **Cleveland **9
**Carolina **24 - **Tampa Bay **16
**Kansas City **27 - **Washington **21
**Jacksonville **24 - **St. Louis **6
**Philadelphia **23 - **Oakland **6
**Seattle **27 - **Arizona **20
** New England **38 - **Tennessee **14
New York Jets 26 - **Buffalo **9
**Atlanta **27 - **Chicago **20
**San Diego 24 - Denver **20
And were I putting down a 3 team parlay, I’d take New England, Pittsburgh, and Green Bay all giving points.
Damn it, Wimbley is out with injury. He always owns the living shit out of Marvel Smith and there’s uncalled holding all game long. I was going to try to use it as an example to the Steelers fans who think they’re somehow on the wrong end of all these calls.
I love watching the pre-game shows, because i always learn a heap. Bill Cowher just broke down what the Ravens need to do to stop the Vikings offense. Here are his three main points"
Wow! Thanks for that blinding insight, Coach!
You mean to tell me that they need to stop one of the best RBs in football? I couldn’t have worked that out. And they also need to prevent big pass plays, and tackle well? That’s a pretty radical plan for playing defense right there. Glad they pay Cowher the big bucks to provide this analysis.
Vikings had 1st and goal from about the 5. The Ravens sold out to stuff Adrian and sent 9 on a run blitz. That left Bernard Berrian wide open in the end zone without a defender within 5 yards of him.
Message to the Ravens: that ain’t Tavaris Jackson playing quarterback anymore.