Bears Blitz

Published by Antwan Fields on December 22, 2009
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears are a stupid, stubborn football team who couldn’t block to save their mothers’ lives. They couldn’t even score at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch with only the hookers in the building.

Despite getting that bit of anger out of my system, I’m not done.

I listen to the Boers & Bernstein podcast on a regular basis. Living in Minneapolis, I’m  unable to hear the show live.

I recently heard Devin Hester, being interviewed by Zach Zaidman, say that changes should be made, that the team is frustrating, and that things are bad. Finally, some honesty from someone who plays on this mess of a team, even though it’s coming from someone who is contributing, albeit not in a particularly major way, to the problems in Chicago.

Then, in one of the most unconvincing statements since Pete Rose’s anti-climatic “admission” that he bet on baseball, a Twitter statement appeared, authored by Hester, retracting the statement made.

To the best of my knowledge, Devin Hester doesn’t have a Twitter. Never has, either.

Really, Chicago Bears front office? Really? This is what you have time for? Not fixing what’s broken, not bringing anyone in who could help the team? Instead you want to make up a retraction from a player who meant every word he said?

The performance in Baltimore is a prime example of what every true Bears fan, who doesn’t have their head jammed firmly in an unmentionable place, has been yelling about this entire season. The Bears rolled over and laid down for Baltimore. Not because the Bears are bad, which they are, but because they have no pride and no guts.

Listen to me, now. I’m not, nor ever have I said, that Jay Cutler has no blame in this. But in a pie chart, Cutler’s share wouldn’t even be 15 percent. Jerry Angelo holds the lion’s share of blame.

How do you not improve the worst receiver corps in football? How are you not prepared for this exact situation? Marvin Harrison may not be any good anymore, but even he would have improved this team more than putting Hester as your No. 1.

Look at the other three teams in the division. The Lions have the best receiving corps by far in “CJ the Cornerback Slayer;” the Packers alternate Greg Jennings and Donald Driver as their No. 1; and the Vikings have Sidney Rice, who has supplanted potential cap victim Bernard Berrian as the Vikings’ top receiver.

Then you have the Chicago Bears, who made an idiotic decision to make a converted corner into their No. 1 wide receiver. You know when things like this work? Never!

Every other team in the NFL has better receivers than the Bears. Well, maybe not the Browns, but that’s a different story. Not only that, where was the backup plan for when Urlacher went down? This isn’t just a bad team, it’s a bad team that has given up.

And speaking of Urlacher, I’ve said this before: this whole defensive identity thing is a load of hooey. This team has won nothing being defense-oriented.

In the Super Bowl era, the Bears have appeared in two Super Bowls and won exactly one. By contrast the Pittsburgh Steelers are 6-1 over exactly that same time period. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 70’s, the Steel Curtain, had superstars and Hall of Famers on both sides of the ball.

Don’t even get me started on the Dallas Cowboys.

So for Brian Urlacher to take shots at Cutler was not only unjustified, it was completely wrong. Unless you’re the 2001 Baltimore Ravens, you’re not going to win a thing with a defensive-minded scheme. Offense-only teams (say, the Mike Martz-led Rams from the late 90’s-early 2000’s) suffer the same fate.

Cutler is not nearly as bad as this season is making him look. He is not an average quarterback. Kyle Orton is not a Pro Bowl quarterback. But I would still make the deal. However, I would improve the team through other signings and transactions.

Remember, I said it before: you will not win without at least an above-average offensive line. A good offensive line is the most important part of an offense. Cutler went from Ryan Clady, a potential Pro Bowler, and guys like Ben Hamilton, to guys who get handled routinely by defensive linemen, giving linebackers and assorted others’ a clear path to blow up every single play.

I’ve given up on watching the Bears. Not only because they have all the entertainment value of the Chicago Wolves hockey team (with the excitement of an UIC Flames basketball game), but because I’m literally watching my life shorten with the rage I feel when a receiver isn’t catching a catchable ball or when Greg Olson does his best impression of Wonder Woman by spinning around in a circle every time a linebacker comes near him.

Or when Cutler looks lost without a single good receiver to take the pressure off Softness, (my new name for Matt Forte) and when Lovie Smith continues to insist that nothing’s wrong with the team.

I really wish the Bears would spend time learning how to win (or even being competitive in) a football game and not making up fake Twitter accounts for Devin Hester to retract statements he went on the record with.

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