There is a lot of stuff going on with the Bears right now, and not much of it is good. Injuries are starting to add up, the defense looks vulnerable, and the offense, well, not much has changed there. So far there haven’t been any significant season-ending injuries, but just a whole bunch of nagging minor injuries that have the potential to cause problems for the team throughout the season. Mike Brown has tweaked his achilles tendon, and hasn’t played much. Thomas Jones hurt his hamstring, and it’s supposed to be better, but he didn’t do much against the Cardinals to indicate that he is 100%. Cedric Benson hurt his shoulder, and still isn’t playing with contact. Those are some of the key injuries, but there are plenty of others as well, which have the potential to really be a problem for the Bears.
Every year Bears fans hope like heck that the offense will improve, and won’t take years off of our lives from having to watch the ineptitude of the unit. It really doesn’t look like this year is any different so far. The first team offense has only scored six points (2 FGs) this preseason. I read all sorts of hype about Rex Grossman, and how good he looks in practice, but I really haven’t been that impressed with what I’ve seen during the games. I feel sorry for the guy really. Injuries have put him in a near impossible situation. Even though this is his fourth season, he has only played half a season’s worth of games. He’s expected to be a savior, but he’s really still a rookie, experience wise. As such, he’s going to make some mistakes, but fans aren’t willing to tolerate that. I don’t agree with the booing he received during the game last week, but there is hope for this offense, and his name is Brian Griese. I hope Griese never has to play this year, because that will mean Grossman is healthy and doing a decent job running the offense, but the odds are that Griese will get quite a bit of playing time this season based on history. Griese is light years better than any backup QB the Bears have had in the past decade. I finally feel good that the Bears have a legitimate insurance plan at the quarterback position. (At least the Bears didn’t have to call up Jeff George again.)
What’s up with the defense? I only watched the preseason game against the Chargers the other week, but the one thing that bothered me the most was all the missed and broken tackles. What should have been no gain, or a loss, resulted in 20+ yards on more than one occasion, and that was with the first team defense on the field! Last week, rookie QB Matt Leinart looked like Tom Brady against the Bears’ first team defense too. For something that was supposed to be solid and not a cause of worry, I’m legitimately concerned about the defense right now.
With all that said, we have to remember that the Bears play in the NFC North. Watching the Packers last night against the Bengals, I feel a lot better about the Bears’ situation. It’s a good thing the Bears play the Packers the first week of the season, and not a team like the Seahawks. The Bears open the season at GB, against Detroit, and at Minnesota. All of those teams have new coaching staffs, and hopefully won’t be fully clicking yet within their new schemes when the Bears play them. Having a chance to start 3–0 in the division would be absolutely huge.
Finally, here are some quick predictions for the Bears’ season:
- The Bears will finish 11–5 this season and once again win the NFC North.
- Brian Griese will end up starting at some point this season.
- The Bears will win at least one playoff game this season.
- Cedric Benson will be exposed as a bust.
- The Bears will sweep the Packers again, and make Brett Favre look bad in the process. (But hey, he’s still having fun. He loves to play football you know.)
No comments:
Post a Comment