The Bears signing of free-agent defensive end Julius Peppers is imminent, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
A separate source has told Sean Jensen of the Sun-Times that former Vikings running back Chester Taylor will also sign with the Bears today. A press conference announcing the signings of Peppers, Taylor and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna is expected to be held at Halas Hall later this afternoon.
The source said that although the Patriots and Eagles have also made offers for Peppers, the deal the Bears are offering is worth more per season and it would be a huge upset if Peppers left Halas Hall, where he is visiting today, without signing what is expected to be a six-year contract with approximately $12-14 million per year with the first three years guaranteed. The source said the Eagles and Pats are offering deals that are closer to $10 million per year.
So in one day they get a massive, hole opening, quarterback protecting tight end, a top running back to actually hit those holes and a pass rusher who hopefully isn’t just signing for the huge paycheck.
For the second time in two seasons, running back Garrett Wolfe finds himself on injured reserve. Last season because of a hamstring and now the team is saying he has a lacarated kidney from a hit he took against the Cardinals.
Wolfe has 120 yards and a handful of catches this season in a backup role.
Not only did the Bears get thumped by the Cardinals, they are poorer because of it as well. Tommie Harris was fined $7,500 for punching Deuce Lutui, a wise move considering he had his helmet on.
Cutler got nailed with a $20,000 fine for “abusive conduct towards a game official” which also got him a 15 yard penalty. Come on Jay-should you really be yelling at people these days? 17 interceptions??
This photo sums up my hatred for this current Chicago Bears team. Yesterday’s game was probably the most pathetic and gutless performance I have ever witnessed in my years of watching the Bears play football. It made me absolutely sick to my stomach watching Cedric Benson smile, play after play, after play, after play. We all know why he was smiling, that pathetic thing the Bears call a defense couldn’t stop him. He was looking for vindication and the Bears handed it to him on a silver platter. I can’t explain how angry I am with this because that is one guy who shouldn’t ever feel vindicated because HE DOESN’T DESERVE IT! From 2 minutes after being selected by the Bears in the draft he started balling like a little girl on national tv. He was upset the Bears selected him because they already had a running back and he knew they weren’t going to pay him what he was worth (in his mind). Why should he have to go out and earn a spot or the money he wanted? Then he held out for all of training camp, came in, and acted like a prima donna, which caused his teammates not to like him very much. Then he got hurt. Fast forward to the next year. He complained that the defense was cheap shotting him in practice; he got hurt again, complained about the team, about the media, about the fans, and then called on Ricky Williams to mentor him through his problems. Good call there, I’m not even going to state the obvious, but went on a boat ride with Ricky and some “ladies’ and got busted by the cops. Then a few months later, he got busted again, so the Bears showed him the door. Sorry buddy, you can’t be vindicated from being a jackass. It doesn’t work that way.
So onto the photo. Like I said earlier, it made me sick to my stomach every time I saw Benson with that huge smile on his face. I wanted to drive to Cincy and rip his face off. Me, a guy watching the game on my couch, 400 miles away from the action. For some reason that is beyond my comprehension, I saw no Bears player with the same anger that I had. The only life I saw in the defense was when Kevin Payne gave Ochocinco’s helmet a little girl slap after a play to draw a 15 yard personal foul penalty. Way to go Kevin, that’ll teach him. But that was about it. Sure, I saw some frustration on some of the players faces but nobody did anything about it! Cincy kept Benson in at the end of the game so he could reach 200 yards. 200 yards! Really? If this team had any heart, he wouldn’t have gotten 20 yards and if they couldn’t have stopped him, he would have at least known he had played football that day.
I read today that Jay Cutler said that everybody in the locker room was embarrassed. Sorry Jay, I don’t believe it. Take a look at the above picture of your starting full-back after the game. That’s a pretty big smile from a guy that is embarrassed. If my team got destroyed like that, I’d be angry and sure wouldn’t be smiling at guy you just handed “vindication” to. You’re lucky Mr. McKie, if it were up to me you would have been cut at 8am this morning. Show a little heart. Maybe if you actually did your job and blocked somebody Jay would have had an extra millisecond to throw the ball before a Bengal defender was in his face. As bad as the defense was, you and the offensive line were even more pathetic. The Bears would have a lot more cap room if they dumped everybody on that line, put out pylons and asked the defense to count to 5-Mississippi before they rushed the QB. The offensive line had about the same effect.
The Anger Sharks are swimming and I want heads to roll. I don’t want a good 85% of the players on the Bears anymore. That’s not going to happen anytime soon so we’ll start with Lovie Smith, “stuff” (wanted to try and keep this G-Rated) rolls downhill. A heartless, unemotional coach breeds a heartless, unemotional team. Disgusting!
As I sit here trying to come up with some coherent thoughts for my first blog of the season, I am running into the same problem for why I stopped writing last season. To be honest, I’m generally happy with the 3-2 start this year. Things could be a lot worse. Coming into the season with question marks at the wide receiver position, a brand new quarterback, Mike Brown being cut, depth issues here and there, the same coaching staff, etc., this team could easily be 1-4 – sorry Lions the Bears aren’t the Skins, so an 0-5 was out of the question. Add to that the Bears lost their best player on defense when Brian Urlacher went down a couple quarters into the season, things looked a little bleak the day after the Packers game. But the positives have outweighed the negatives so far…oh the negatives….the anger sharks are starting to swim in my head…but I digress…
Minus Urlacher and the final drive against the Packers, the defense has been pretty solid even with a continued injury problem at linebacker. Hunter Hillenmeyer, who took over the middle and got hurt against he Seahawks and Pisa Tinoisamoa is about to join Mr. Urlacher on IR. Nick Roach and Jamar Williams have stepped up beyond expectations where Urlacher’s absence isn’t that apparent. Hillenmeyer will be back this week so that should help. Overall though, I’m not too worried about the defense when the Bengals come into town.
This is the point in the blog, where my disdain turns into rage – think anger sharks – and where the wheels may fall off, so be for-warned. I’ll start off with talking about the offense with happy thoughts. I’m happy with Jay Cutler (minus 6 throws, make that 9 or 10 but 3 weren’t caught by the other team). Overall, he’s worth what they gave up, does he have a problem throwing to the wrong colored jersey here and there, yes, but I feel comfortable with him back there not comfortable enough with his talent to overcome a major problem with the offense, more on that later, I’m still trying to hold down the rage, but comfortable. The receiver corp has played well, and the fact that the Bears got Johnny Knox as a result of the Cutler trade makes that even better. Greg Olsen has been a little slow but looks to have turned the corner the past couple weeks….
Enough with the happiness garbage let’s get down to business. The anger sharks are a swimmin’.
There are two things about the Chicago Bears that I absolutely hate, actually three things but I don’t have enough energy to talk about the ownership today, so I’ll stick to the two things that I have had a problem with since the first play of the .season. The Bears offensive line irritates me. It has for years. Even going back to the Super Bowl year against the Colts, I had issues with it. I’ll give Jerry Angelo credit that he is trying to right the ship here, drafting Chris Williams last year and picking up Orlando Pace this off-season. Olin Kreutz is what he is, better than most centers out there but I think he is highly over-rated. It still amazes me how many false starts he gets called for when he is the one hiking the ball. The problem here is that Pace isn’t what he used to be and the two guards, Frank Omiyale and Roberto Garza, are awful. Roberto Garza, no matter how great of a guy he is, would be a back up on any other team. Omiyale has only showed why Carolina got rid of him….the reason….wait for it…he’s not any good. I don’t even want to talk about his penalties last week. He’s a drive killer just like Ruben Brown was, ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a little. I have a suggestion and a plea to Lovie. Switch Pace and Williams. They both have been decent but I think Pace is beyond his time on the left side, bring over the kid and see what he can do. Maybe Pace moving to the right could help Garza at least open a hole or two for Forte to run through. And Lovie, please for all that is holy on this earth bring in Beekman to replace Omiyale. He played well last year and my blood pressure can’t take much more of Frank. It’s players like him where I am happy I don’t have the NFL Ticket anymore and can’t watch every game. The running game hasn’t been good so far. The O-line needs to start opening holes or at least hold a block long enough where Forte is hit in the backfield half the time.
At this point, my head hurts and really remember why I stopped writing my blog last year but I will forge ahead and talk about the person that made me want to write a blog this week. If you are still reading, I would like to apologize for not getting to the point right away but its better for my mental health to try and think happy thoughts before I escalate things. I’ll start off by saying when I heard the Bears were bringing back Ron Turner as offensive coordinator again, I laughed. I thought the person who told me was kidding. It wasn’t until I opened up an article about his hire or re-hire for that matter that a certain four letter word rang through my head. I’m sure I am not the only Bears fan that thought, hmmmm his playing calling didn’t really work out too well the first time around why do they think it will work this time? But then I thought, could he be worse than John Shoop or Terry Shea? (My rage because of Bears ownership is now creeping out but I’ll try and stay on topic.) Really, a guy that led the high powered offenses during the Wannstadt years and led U. of Illinois to two win-less seasons surely could do wonders for a sputtering offense. And yes, that statement is oozing with sarcasm if you missed it.
Fast forward to today, so I can wrap this up. I read an article from a Chicago beat writer saying that Turner has opened up his offense from years past and that the perception of Turner’s play calling is false. He had stats and figures and even showed that the Bears have thrown the ball longer on plays longer than 16 yards more than the Colts and Pats this year. While that may be true and yes, the Bears are throwing the ball more this year. That is probably because they finally have talent at quarterback (no offense Mr. Neck-Beard, still love ya). The issue is his play calling doesn’t make sense. If you want to establish a passing game, establish a passing game, don’t pass and then try and run the ball once and then punt the ball. If you want to establish a running game, establish a running game. Calling random pass plays and running plays doesn’t work. Never has. If it’s third down and you need 8 yards, don’t call a 5 yard pass play and hope for the extra 4 yards. If you are on the two and Atlanta’s D is making the O-line look bad, don’t call a sweep. The Bears had the ball on the goal line twice last week. I had very little doubt that they were going to score because of the play calling (and no, I am not forgetting that the offensive line screwed the pooch for a good 8 plays worth down there). It’s beyond ridiculous and has been for years. I was really hoping that having a talented quarterback and a talented running back would make up the difference for the lack of talent at the offensive coordinator position. Well it’s not and it won’t.
An easy win in Soldier Field against a hungry Chicago Bears squad, that’s what. While not all of Steeler Nation was expecting a cup cake win, most of what I heard was exactly that. Well friends, the Bears stepped up when it mattered and took down the champs (thanks Jeff Reed)
The Good:
Cutler back on track with a 27 of 38, two touchdown day with no balls going to the other team. This game was night and day from what we saw last week against the Packers. THIS is the Jay Cutler Chicago fans expected. He didn’t try to do too much and kept the bombs under control (longest completion was 29yds)
The defense responded without Urlacher. The Steelers came out slinging and moved the ball well on the first couple of possessions. After that, the defense clamped down and started applying pressure to Ben. Alex Brown had two sacks but the pressure Roethlisberger had in his face all day changed his game (not in a good way for a change).
Johnny Knox. Who?? Johnny Knox FROM Abilene Christian. The fifth round pick racked up 70 yards and a touchdown in his breakout game. More on Knox to come.
Special Teams. Brad Maynard had another great game punting (45.8 yard average) and Robbie Gould nailed the game winner from 44 yards out to seal the victory.
The Bad:
The running game was in bad shape but keep in mind this was the league’s #1 defense. That aside, Forte has 83 yards this season and a 2.2 yards per carry average that must be improved if this team is going to win games.
Where was Tommie Harris??
I can’t dwell too heavily on the negative right now. You beat the champs and the air smells a little fresher. Great win!
Where do I even begin?? Maybe the game winning drive by Rodgers. Maybe pick-fest 2009. Maybe even losing the heart of the defense for the year. Honestly, there isn’t much I feel like writing about this game.
In his Bears debut, Cutler went out and tossed four INT’s in a performance that left many fans wondering Kyle Orton wasn’t still behind center. Luckily the number was only four because it could have easily been seven.
“There were a lot of failures,” Cutler said. “We’ve got to go back and look at it. I think we’re still going to be a good football team, there’s no need to panic.”
When the starting QB throws almost a 6-pack of picks and the leading rusher is held to 55yards, I would tend to disagree. This is a “not ready for prime time” offense right now. Chalk it up to familiarity issues with the receivers or poorly run routes but ugly is ugly. A quote I heard on one of the morning radio shows sums it up perfectly, “There is no other quarterback in the league that loves his arm as much as Jay Cutler”. This is highly evident in the fact that it looks like Jay is trying to will balls into receivers hands when there is zero chance of them being caught.
Then you have the MASH unit that should follow the team. Urlacher suffered a season ending wrist injury after coming back in the best shape he’s been in since the 2006 season. The front office notified Derrick Brooks last night that he should stay put because they are going to try and fill in with younger players. They signed linebacker Tim Shaw late Monday, he played in three games last year and will also see special teams work. Hunter Hillenmeyer will get a shot to fill #54’s shoes but I personally don’t think it’s a long term answer. Brooks may have been on the sidelines for a while but he has the heart and experience they need right now.
Add Pisa to the injury list as well. He suffered a knee injury that could keep him out for up to a month. Not a good night to be a linebacker!
Now it’s time to host the Super Bowl champion Steelers at Soldier. Even without the long haired freak in the lineup, they are deadly and could cause a lot of problems for the Bears offense. Forte will see a stacked box all night and with corners salivating for Cutler to heave it up, Olsen would seem to be a safe bet in an outlet role. More to come on this later but for now I’m just scratching my head wondering who this team is going to be this season.
Offensive linemen (8): Josh Beekman, Roberto Garza, Olin Kreutz, Lance Louis, Frank Omiyale, Orlando Pace, Kevin Shaffer, Chris Williams.
Defensive linemen (9): Anthony Adams, Mark Anderson, Alex Brown, Jarron Gilbert, Tommie Harris, Marcus Harrison, Israel Idonije, Adewale Ogunleye, Matt Toeaina.
Linebackers (6): Lance Briggs, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Nick Roach, Pisa Tinoisamoa, Brian Urlacher, Jamar Williams.
I have to admit, the girl walking into the stadium dressed like a baby made me laugh (didn’t hurt that she was cute). Follow that up with the signs and shirts ripping Cutler and you had the set up for a very loud night. I’ve heard some loud crowds but last night seemed like the stadium was going to collapse under the noise-and that was just watching it on TV! It didn’t take long though for the most hated man in Denver to shove it in the face of Broncos fans.
Cutler quickly proved who got the best of this deal and why Denver should be very concerned with their QB situation. On one side you have Cutler leading the Bears 98 yards for a score. On the other side you have Orton cutting a finger and running to the sidelines waving it like a six year old when he gets a boo boo on the play ground.
Say what you want about Jay being a whiny crybaby. What you cannot deny is that he is a damn fine quarterback that has a great arm and the nerves to handle just about any situation on the field. On the long drive, he hit beautiful passes to Earl Bennett and Greg Olsen that ended with a strike to Forte for the touchdown. He finished the night 15/21 for 144yds, no INT’s and a touchdown.
On the other side was Kyle Orton. I can’t rip him, the guy got caught up in this mess and is doing what he can out there. If McDaniel’s expects to get anything close to the arm of Cutler, he is sadly mistaken. Orton once again kept in his comfort zone of short passes (5.6yd avg) until slicing open the index finger on his throwing hand.
It’s a long season but I was definitely happy with what I saw last night. The team heads back home to wrap up the preseason against the Browns.
