Thoughts on Da Bears

While I was hoping to watch my team win a championship at the end of its season for the second time in as many season endings, it was just not to be.

The only positive I take from this is that I won $13 for correctly predicting the final total points (46) at the party in which I watched the game. I had my sights set on 30-16 Bears victory, however.

Rex Grossman will probably never have a season in the NFL where he doesn't have constant doubters. I'm sure it's tough having you and everyone else in the country know that you are the weak-link on a team, but it's even worse to be reminded of it in the media every single day. I do feel bad for him, but in the end you cannot make excuses for not getting the job done on the field. I have a feeling that if he ever becomes a consistent starting QB in the NFL that it will not be for the Bears. I do believe he'll be under center at next season's kickoff, but it may be his final audition to be the Bears' starting QB. Unfortunately for the Bears, they cannot expect to keep this team together for long and they need solid play from the QB position these next two seasons or they may see their window for winning the Super Bowl begin to slide shut on them more and more each season.

Ron Turner will be a name that haunts my dreams for many years to come. He haunted my dreams as Illinois head coach and now as an offensive coordinator for the Bears. His coordinating is just that...offensive. A classic example of coaches who get too much credit for success (this guy is some kind of QB guru?). He acted just as scared as Grossman did out there.

The other coordinating Ron has some 'splainin to do as well. Absolutely no adjustments and he appeared oblivious to the notion that some changes were needed. He sounded surprised that the QB known to study more film than other QB and the QB that is the most prepared in the league might just have realized that the Bears dropped safeties deep on every play? Did he think that Manning would act like Grossman and get frustrated of the short pass and try to throw it deep to something that's not there? There's a reason why one is Rex Grossman and the other is Peyton Manning. The announcers commented on the Bears defensive scheme on the first drive of the game...did he think they would figure out something that Manning wouldn't? Ugh.

Super Bowl commercials were down this year, imo. That damn robot commercial was just sad. I didn't get some others and there really wasn't a commercial that jumped out to me as being great. I think all of these companies got ripped off for paying as much as they did for those spots. Can anyone please block godaddy.com ads for all eternity? They are terrible and I have not been even the least bit interested in seeing what the hell they are. Surely there is someone else out there waiting to blow their money just as badly as that website. That person may even be named Shirley.

I'm not a big Prince fan, but I did enjoy his halftime show. I much preferred this show to shows of previous years.

Anyone else going to enjoy the Peyton Manning commercials from now on? I did like them, but will know start disliking them. We already see a lot of his face and now we're going to see him in a few more...including the dreaded Disney World commercial.

Anyone not understand the point of giving the professional athletes a car? What are the chances that Manning even likes that kind of car? Can he turn it down saying that he didn't want to waste taxes on it?

At least we won't have to listen to the story line of 'Peyton cannot win the big one' anymore as if it were his fault that the Colts weren't winning the Super Bowl. His postseason faults have not been Alex Rodriguez-esque. It's tough for any one person to be the difference in a football game, regardless of how good he is. Peyton is one of the best QB in the NFL, I just wish he could have gotten his title against a team other than the beloved.

In other notes...

Devin Hester...you have been and continue to be RIDICULOUS.

Kelvin Hayden and Aaron Moorehead...congratulations on getting a Super Bowl ring. Props to Kelvin for doing a great job of not biting on Moose's double-move and for being in perfect position to catch Grossman's errant pass. Luckily for Illinois, the announcer threw in the "2nd year man from Illinois" during the return. That's not something that is very common in this type of situation and probably was done due to a lack of other information to use on Hayden. Very ironic that he picks of Ron Turner's QB and score. In a way, he does have Turner to thank as he was not one of the few guys Turner held back from the defensive coaches in moving athletes to the defense. As a result, instead of Hayden being a no-name WR somewhere...football fans world wide got to hear his name, Illinois' name, and see him score a TD in the Super Bowl. Not bad for a kid from JCC.

Anyone here think Angelos can go in a direction that people are not expecting him to in the draft? If he does, are you going to criticize him as much as you did on draft weekend last summer? I don't think he can ignore the offensive side of the ball this year, so he'll have fewer surprises that he can pull. He may find a guy like Manning that others were not quite as high on, but he sees something in them and they turn out to be decent. What looked like an odd draft last season turned into a great one and had key players that contributed a great deal to this year's Super Bowl run. Let's hope this year's draft class can do similar things for the offense and count down to the first Sunday in February next year...and hopefully sit down and watch the Bears attempt to avenge this season's loss. There's only one more step to take...

fin