Quick Thoughts 9/29

• Rex Grossman won the NFC offensive player of the month award for September. The last Bear to win this award was Neal Anderson in 1989! Let’s hope another seventeen years don’t go by before another Bear wins it.
• This link comes courtesy of Brent. Baby toupees! My favorite is “The Donald.”
• Thanks for reading my blog. I cracked the 10,000 hit plateau this week. It’s amazing how many of the hits come from people searching on music lists like the ones I did earlier this year. I might have to come up with some new ones.
• One of these weekends, perhaps this one, I’d like to do a running blog while watching one of the Bears’ games. Sunday’s match-up against the Seahawks seems like an ideal game to do that for. Two undefeated teams, and a prime-time game with Maddenisms. What more could I ask for? Okay, I’m sold.

Bears Win at the Dome

Of the four or five Bears/Vikings games I’ve been to at the Metrodome, yesterday’s was one of the best.  Here are some thoughts I had while at the game yesterday:    

• People complain about baseball being boring to watch, but there certainly is a lot of down-time, and players just standing around during the course of a football game too.  It amazes me that the players are able to maintain their intensity with so many breaks in the action.  Instant replay kills the continuity of the game more than anything, especially when the challenge is for a two yard change. 
• The Metrodome is not an easy place for a visiting team to win, especially when the crowd is into the game. 
• I was really surprised the Bears were able to put any drives together at all after Grossman threw that interception that was run in for a touchdown.  That play whipped the crowd into a frenzy and I totally expected the Bears to fall apart after that.
• The fact that the Bears were able to score ten points after that turning point in the game is what impressed me the most yesterday.  In general, the game was ugly and sloppy, but the Bears put themselves in a position to win. 
• The two Vikings fans right in front of me were the only ones in our section to stand up every time the Bears ran a third down play.  *GRRRR*
• I expect some harassment from the home fans when I wear my Bears jersey, but the guy behind me was just an idiot.  He kept touching my ears and head every time the Vikings made a good play, and just said stupid stuff to me.  The stuff he said was so dumb that even the other Vikings fans didn’t jump in on it or even respond to it.  He was probably about 22 and was with his very drunk, young girlfriend who spent most of the second half passed out next to him.  After the Bears won, he left very quickly and quietly. 
• Two Bears “fans” near me left the game with about three minutes to go.  I suppose they were pretty shocked when they got home and found out the Bears ended up winning. 

Ironic results

This is kind of funny, since I had a big crush on Mariah back in the early and mid 90’s.  Give the link a try and post who shares your taste in music.

Mariah Carey Shares Your Taste in Music

See her whole playlist here (iTunes required)

Which Musician (or Group) Shares Your Taste in Music?

Bears Rout* Lions

It should come as no surprise that I am one happy camper today after the Bears tore apart the Lions in Chicago yesterday.  Watching the Bears explode on offense, with a passing game, just makes me giddy.  The Bears haven’t beaten the best teams in the league, but they are putting up some impressive offensive numbers, which is what they have to do if they want to compete with the other contenders.  Chicago has had a 40+ yard touchdown pass in each of the first two games this season.  These aren’t just ten yard slants that the receiver breaks into a huge gain either.  These are full-fledged bombs that require some accuracy, touch, and skill that has been sorely missed in recent seasons.  To me, this is the biggest thing to be excited about.  The Bears have taken some shots downfield in past seasons, but most of the time, the ball was overthrown, under-thrown, thrown to the wrong spot, or thrown into massive coverage.  The biggest change I’m seeing this year is that the receivers are beating their coverage, and the ball is getting thrown where it needs to be.  It doesn’t matter how bad your competition is; if you aren’t taking advantage of the opportunities you have, you’re not going to win many games.  It looks like opponents will need to worry about more than just the run when the play the Bears now. 

Here are some quick thoughts about the Bears:

• After two games, the Bears have scored 60 points, and given up only 7.
• Rex Grossman’s stat line from yesterday: 20/27 for 289 yards, 4 TDs and 0 INTs.  That equates to a QB rating of 148. 
• This is almost too good to be true.  I hope the Bears have vaccinated themselves against the injury bug this season. 
• I saw a stat that Cade McNown threw four touchdown passes against the Lions in 1999.  That took me by surprise, as I don’t have any positive memories from the McNown days. 
• I’ll be at the Metrodome this Sunday for the Bears/Vikings game.  It’s looking like it’s going to be a great game.
• No shutout…no bear claws, but the offer stands for all games this season.

Fly-over for Iowa/Iowa State Game

Two posts in one day?  I know, that’s unheard of for me, but I also wanted to post this picture that I got from my uncle.  He sent a note saying that my cousin’s husband will be flying the F-16 over Kinnick Stadium at the start of the Iowa/Iowa State game this Saturday.  That’s worth a post, even if he is a Hawkeye fan.

Superfan Kahn's Quick Thoughts 9/15

• This is good for a laugh.  Lions receiver, Roy Williams has essentially guaranteed that the Lions will beat the Bears in Chicago this weekend.  These “guarantees” are getting so common and ridiculous that they are becoming nothing more than a joke anymore.
• CNN-SI’s Peter King says that if Rex Grossman can be an above average QB this season, the Bears have a great chance to be in the Super Bowl.  That’s a pretty big “if” right there.  Week 1 was was great, but we’ll see how he looks against some better teams. 
• The Lions’ defense looked really good last week against the Seahawks.  They totally shut down Shaun Alexander.  Let’s hope the Bears can open up their passing game again on Sunday, or else it might be a rough day for Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. 
• Superfan Kahn’s prediction for the game:  Bears 17, Lions 6.  (At least one of the Bears’ scores will be on defense or special teams.  That’s a safe prediction, right?)
• Remember, BEAR CLAWS on Monday if da Bears shut out the Lions!

 

Quick Thoughts 9/12

• This furniture store offered free furniture if the Bears shut out the Packers. That’s awesome, and even better that the owner followed through with it. To pay my respect to this noble gesture, I will now make a similar proposal. If the Bears shut out the Lions this week, I will bring in bear claw donuts on Monday.
• I’m in three Yahoo! fantasy football leagues. After the first week, I’m now 0–3. That’s not the start I was looking for.
• Our windows are getting fixed tomorrow. They’re just going to add some beefier weather stripping at the bottom. Hopefully that will make a tight seal and I won’t have to worry about any further leakage.
• Yes, the Cyclones play the Hawkeyes on Saturday. The game will be on ESPN at 11AM. Sorry Bigshow, but I’m just not as optimistic as you about the outcome of this game. ISU’s defense has been less than impressive so far, and playing on the road, in a hostile environment just doesn’t bode well for the Cyclones. I just hope the game is close. Unfortunately, I’m going to predict that Iowa will win this one 38–24. Show me up Cyclones.

Bears Blank Pack

26–0 has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?  In case you didn’t know, that was the final score of the Bears/Packers game yesterday, with the Packers sporting the big fat zero.  I would later learn that this was the first time Brett Favre has ever been shut out.  Well done Chicago.  Favre only threw two interceptions, and they occurred after the game was well in hand.  I also want to thank the announcers of the game yesterday for not talking about Brett Favre throughout the whole game.  Everyone already knows that Favre loves football and has fun playing, so we don’t need to go over that again and again. 

The biggest surprise to me was how good Chicago’s offense looked.  They dominated the time of possession, and drove the ball pretty much at will.  Oh and most of the yards came via the air!  Chicago with a passing game?  I sure hope this game wasn’t a fluke.  Grossman really looked good, and only had one poor, Favre-like decision, where he threw the ball into triple coverage in the endzone, resulting in an interception.  I suppose he was feeling invincible from the previous drive’s 49 yard perfect touchdown pass to Benard Berrian.  Just don’t make a habit of throwing into triple coverage Rex, and we’ll all forget that ever happened.  Mushin Muhammad looked great yesterday (lots of big catches instead of big drops), as well as the tight end, Desmond Clark.  The running game didn’t do a whole lot, but I’m not too worried about that right now.  Overall, I was extremely surprised and impressed by the offense. 

I think the Bears finally have a solid punt returner.  Gone are the days of wondering if the punt will be mishandled and turned over.  Devin Hester did a fine job yesterday, returning one for a touchdown.  I think we’ll be hearing his name a lot this year.

Green Bay isn’t as dominant at Lambeau as they once were, but it’s still impressive to walk in there and shut the home team out.  It looks like the Packers will have a real long season if yesterday was any indication.  Next up for the Bears are the Lions at Soldier Field.  I’ll have plenty to say about them later this week.  Bear down!

Quick Thoughts 9/8

• Bears/Packers Sunday.  I’m hoping the Bears will route Green Bay, but the only way that will happen is if Favre throws multiple interceptions, and the Bears’ defense eats him alive.  It should be a good one to watch.  I, for one, am happy Brett Favre didn’t retire yet.  It’s payback time!
• It’s supposed to rain and be in the 60’s for highs all weekend.  Sounds like a good excuse to watch football.
• Traffic is getting pretty bad on South Broadway in Rochester in the mornings and after work.  It’s all due to construction, and funneling down to one lane.  It took me 30 minutes last night to go one block.  I was in the lane that stays open, but traffic was moving a lot better in the other lane which is closed a little further up the road.  So everyone was getting to the merge point, and the people in the open lane let them in.  Meanwhile, the open lane is getting backed up for miles and hardly any progress is made due to the fact everyone is waiting until the last minute to merge.  It drives me nuts.  I don’t see how people in big cities deal with this kind of traffic jam on a regular basis.  Avoid this area at all costs until the construction is completed.
• I picked up the new Audioslave album this week.  Upon my first couple of listens, I’m a bit disappointed.  It lacks the power and awesome riffs of their first two albums.  This one is just kind of “blah” so far, but hopefully it will grow on me in time.