Superfan Kahn's Thoughts 10/23

Ah yes, the Bears are back to .500.  At least a record of 3–3 is a little easier on the eyes, than a losing record when you see that at the top of the NFC North division.  I was fortunate enough to see most of the Bears’ games the past two weeks as well.  The defense has certainly looked good against some struggling offenses, and hopefully they can continue that trend against the Lions, Saints, and 49ers in the next three weeks.  If you only allow 3 or 6 points a game, chances are you will win, no matter how much your offense struggles. 

Thomas Jones deserves to go to the Pro Bowl.  The man is playing with a bad ankle and is still rushing for over 100 yards a game.  Cedric who? 

The best part about the Bears’ 3–3 record is that two of the three wins came against division opponents, and they are 2–0 right now in the division.  Beating the Lions next week would be huge since it would put the Bears a game up and give them the season sweep against the Lions who appear, somehow, to be one of the best teams in the division. 

I also watched the Packers/Vikings game today, which was an excellent game that went down to the last second.  One thing that really annoyed me in the first half, when the Packers were up 17–0, is how the announcers were pretty much saying the Packers would win the NFC North just because they have Brett Favre.  I came to the realization that even after Favre retires, I’ll still have to listen to the announcers talk about him during every game.  When calling a Packers’ game, Madden will say, “Well that was a great pass that Aaron Rogers had, but boy, you can tell he’s just not having as much fun playing the game as Brett Favre did.”  Other announcers will wonder how much better the team would be if Favre was still playing, much like they constantly do with Randy Moss during Vikings games now.  Sorry guys, but Favre is only one guy,  the rest of the team has the injury bug this year, and they have only won one game.    I don’t see the Packers winning the division.  The Bears have a good defense and solid running game, and those two things win ball games. 

One other thing on the Packers/Vikings game is that it was nice to see former Bear, Paul Edinger win the game for the Vikings (or to put it another way, BEAT THE PACKERS) on the last second, 56 yard field goal.  I had always liked Edinger, but last season for the Bears he became a bit of a liability and had some problems kicking in Soldier Field.  While I don’t think the front office made the right move by replacing him with NY Jets cast-off, Doug Brien, who also was waived a couple weeks ago, I found it comforting last week that Edinger missed 3 field goals last week against the Bears.  Okay, so one was a bad snap and he never had a chance to kick it, but the fact remains that the Bears are probably better off without Edinger, and he’s probably better off playing for a dome team.  Thanks Paul for knowing when to make them, and knowing when to shank them.