Bears Blitz

Published by Scott Ottersen on August 6, 2009
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

I decided that I want to hear what other Bears fans think about the upcoming season, what’s going on in training camp, and anything else they might have to say about the Bears.

With that, I decided that once a week or once a month I wanted to do an article where I post questions/comments from other fans that I have talked to, so that we can have a wider perspective on what the fans are thinking, rather than always just hearing from me. 

So, if you have an comment or question you’d like to throw my way, you can send me a message on this site, or you can email me at ScottOttersen@yahoo.com.  I’m always willing to talk sports.

On to the first mail call…

“The Bears are a good wide receiver away from the NFC Championship game.”

“With the acquisition of Jay Cutler, the NFC North just became Bears Central.”

“Rod Marinelli brings experience and good coaching to a D-Line that needed it more than anything else.”

-Charles J.

I got those three beauties from my friend Charles, who also writes on this site (focusing mostly on NASCAR).  I agree that if Cutler plays up to his potential, the NFC North should be a breeze for the Bears.  And, I feel as if they may not even need that “good receiver” to make it to the NFC Championship game.  We will see.

“I am holding out hope on this season as of right now.  Sure, Matt Forte had a good rookie season, but there have been plenty of backs that have bad good starts to their careers and then fallen off the map.  Our receivers aren’t polished enough to handle a Pro Bowl quarterback, our defense is aging and battered, and we lost our best asset on special teams.  Everyone forgets about how much of a loss it is to not have Hester returning kicks.”

-James M.

I see where James is coming from about Forte.  I think I saw enough from him in his rookie season to believe he’s not going to “fall off.”  Although, you never do know.  I don’t agree with the strategy the Bears have of limiting his carries, but keeping him healthy is very important to our season. 

And I made the argument about losing Hester as our return man being a big reason why we struggled so much last season.  He supplied us with great field position besides taking back a few kicks for touchdowns in previous seasons. 

Winning the field position battle week in and week out is a main reason why we were so successful in years past.  We need to overcome that hurdle if we are going to get back to that level of success.

“Hey Scott, I know you said you would never go to another Bears game in mid-December, but come on we got Cutler, Forte, and it’s Bears-Packers.  I’m going to buy the tickets, and you’re going to freeze your (expletive deleted) off with me.  Remember, the feeling in your toes comes back on the ride home.”

-Mike P.

Yes, that’s a good friend of mine who emailed me when the schedule came out a while back.  I went to a Bears-Packers game a few years back, on Dec. 18.  I tailgated before the game, and before the game even started, I couldn’t feel anything on my body. 

Yes, I was drinking and having a good time, but I knew I would have been more comfortable sitting on my warm couch, in my heated house, not sitting in the way upper deck, and not having to wait 20 minutes just to stand extremely close to two other guys peeing into a urinal. 

If it were September or October, I’d say yes, but I’m not a fan of the cold weather.  Sorry.  I’m just not.

“Scott, if you could have your choice of which positions coach you would want to be (for the Bears), which one would you choose, and why?”

-Ted C.

That’s actually a pretty good question.  I haven’t been asked that one before.  In all honesty, I think I’d go for the wide receivers.  I like a challenge.  And, I would like to work with a group that is doubted, and overlooked, so that I could mold them into what I needed them to be, and then take all the credit for their successes. 

And if they failed, then I would have proved that I’m not worth to be a coach in the NFL.  I’m not a fan of coaches who get credited for being great coaches when they have 10 Pro-Bowlers on their team, and win 10+ games each year.  It can’t be that tough to tell someone like Peyton Manning to go out there and do his job. 

I understand it has its moments, but if you put some of these so-called “great” coaches in the same position as the Bengals head coaches or Lions head coaches, I don’t think they’d be winning too much. 

Yes, I do believe winning in sports has a lot to do with the system the coaches install, but at the same time it helps to have great players.  Ask Phil Jackson, John Wooden, and Red Auerbach how many titles they would have won without the likes of Michael Jordan, Lew Alcindor (as he was known at UCLA), and Bill Russell.

“Bears suck.  And so do you.”

-Anonymous

This person actually created a YouSuck@…. email address just to let me know that I suck.  Thank you, but next time please leave me your name, so I can shout you out on my blog. 

I take all criticism thrown my way, and try to make myself better.  From now on, I’m going to change up my style so I don’t suck.  Thanks.  I owe you whatever career I turn this into.

“I wish that people would stop calling our schedule a walk in the park.  We have some tough games to play.  We have two against Green Bay, and no matter what people say about them, they are our heated rivals, and everything gets thrown out the window for a rivalry game.  We play Pittsburgh, an offensively improved Seattle team, Atlanta, the offensive juggernaut Arizona, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.  And, you can even throw in Minnesota, if you’d like.”

-Barry S.

For a minute, I thought that this might be Barry Sanders emailing me, and purposely taking a shot at the Lions, seeing as how they are just about the only team he didn’t mention that we played. 

But then I remembered that Barry Sanders is one of the greatest football players ever to play the game, and there is no way he is emailing a writer on Bleacher Report. 

A Bears writer, at that.  But, he did make some decent points.  We have the weakest schedule when they take into play last years records.  I can understand why people think that, but I do believe our schedule is tougher than most may think. 

That is why they always say “that is why they play the games.”  You never know what’s going to happen on the field when the game starts.  I still see us winning 10 or 11 games, so easy schedule or not, I’m not scared of anybody.

Well, that is all I have for this Mail Call.  Please feel free to leave responses in the comments, or to send me an email.  I would love to do this every week, with 20-30 posts, but if I have to wait for every other week, I can live with that, as well.

It’s the start of training camp, and not all that much is going on, so I need to keep discussing possible scenarios with other fans to get me through this “dawn period” before the start of the season. 

I hope to hear from you, good or bad.  If you think I suck, tell me so.  But, just tell me why, please.  Thanks.

Late add…