Wasn't the bye week fantastic? For a whole week I didn't have to think about the Bears, and instead of being frustrated on a Sunday, I was just able to sit back and enjoy the Patriots-Colts game.
I didn't have to hear about Brian Urlacher's back, or Bernard Berrian's dropped passes, or Brian Griese's turnovers. It was great!
But now the Bears are preparing to go to Oakland and start the second half of what's looking to be a lost season. I was hoping that after the Seahawks got to the playoffs last season, it had signified an end to the curse of the Super Bowl loser. I was wrong.
But even though they're 3-5, they're not out of it! Sure, the Packers are 7-1, and the Lions are 6-2, but we can still catch em!! The Bears can still go 8-0 to finish 11-5, while the Packers stumble down the stretch with a 3-5 record, and the Bears would win the division.
Will that actually happen? Hell no it won't, but that's still what they're telling themselves at Halas Hall.
If the Bears had any chance of going undefeated in the second half, Cedric Benson would have to step up big time. How many of you honestly see that happening?
Benson has been the dreaded "B" word since being taken fourth overall in the 2005 draft: BUST. The team traded Thomas Jones this offseason for him. The two running backs weren't getting along, so the Bears sent Jones packing to give their first rounder room to breathe.
Now if only the offensive line could do the same thing.
Benson has topped the century mark only once this season, rushing for 101 yards against the Chiefs in Week 2. He still doesn't have a run over 16 yards. In eight games he's managed to rush for 466 yards rushing on 149 carries.
That averages out to a whopping 3.1 yards per carry. Keep in mind, you could just walk up to the line of scrimmage and fall flat on your face, and you'd get two yards. So that means Cedric Benson is good enough to move the ball 4 feet before getting tackled.
Now all the blame can't be placed on Benson. After all, the offensive line are the one responsible for opening the holes, and Cedric hasn't had many big holes to run through this season. Still, for someone with his size, Cedric should be able to make his own holes when he has to.
Instead he chooses to run into a pile of people and fall down. An effective tactic against fumbling the football, but not much help as far as matriculating the ball down the field is concerned.
If Cedric is ever going to have a bust out game this season, it's going to have to be this weekend. If we get another 20 carry, 60-yard performance, we'll know for sure that Benson is never going to amount to anything.
The reason for this is that the Bears are playing the Raiders this weekend. Oakland ranks 30th in the NFL in run defense, giving up 152.5 yards per game. (Roughly 49 Benson carries.) Last week the Raiders gave up 122 yards to Ron Dayne. Ron Dayne the third string running back of the Houston Texans, Ron Dayne. The big man even rumbled for a 39-yard carry against Oakland's porous run defense.
So the Bears gameplan this weekend needs to call for feeding the ball to Benson over and over again. What the gameplan shouldn't consist of are the toss and stretch plays to Benson.
What in the hell makes Ron Turner think that Cedric is ever going to beat anybody to the corner? Speed is not his best asset. All the Bears should do with Benson is let him pound it between the tackles all day.
If Cedric Benson gets the ball 25 times on Sunday, and doesn't manage to get over 100 yards, he's done. He will never be the running back the Bears hoped for, and they'll have to go into this offseason not only searching for a quarterback to lead this team in the future, but for somebody for him to hand the ball off to as well.
Foul Balls
Lane Kiffin Is Stupid - Lane Kiffin is only 32 years old, and he's the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, so it's hard to blame him for having confidence. It's just sometimes having too much confidence in yourself ends up hurting you in the end.
Take this quote from Kiffin in a press conference this week about Devin Hester.
"We're excited about the challenge," Kiffin said. "You know, we've started to play better on special teams the last few weeks. It's obvious [he's] probably the best returner ever to play the game."
"It's no fun to kick it out of bounds, so we're going to see how well we can cover."
So Lane Kiffin and the Raiders plan on kicking to Devin Hester all day on Sunday. Punts, and kicks. None of that out of bounds sissy bullshit other teams have been doing.
So thank you, Lane Kiffin. Thank you for having the balls to test the one known as Hester. Unfortunately, those balls of yours will be your downfall, because kicking to Hester is the dumbest idea you've ever had.
He's the only member of the Bears capable of scoring on a regular basis! Why the hell would you put the ball in his hands!?
Welcome To The Doghouse, Joakim - It didn't take Joakim Noah long to find himself in
Scott Skiles' doghouse, did it? After playing in his first game as a Bull on Tuesday night, Noah got himself in trouble with things he said about the team after the game.
In case you're wondering, here's what
Joakim had to say.
"Every game we play is like, 'Oh, wait till we play the next one. We'll be all good. We're going to kill them the next game.' That's not how it works," he said. "You just have to play possession by possession like it's your last. I don't think we're doing that now."
"At Florida, we played together so much, like every day, and we knew what it took to win ballgames," he said as he leafed through a French magazine that included a feature story about him. "Losing was unacceptable. Even if we didn't play well, we found ways to win basketball games. "… It's tough right now. We have 78 more games to go. Our attitude has to be to see the big picture and learn from this.
"I think we're playing hard, but I feel like we're just not together. Everybody's trying to do it by themselves, instead of playing as a team. I think that's the problem."
Once Skiles heard what his rookie had said, he responded with this.
"If I had just played my first pro game, I'd probably keep my mouth shut, to be honest with you," Skiles told reporters at the Berto Center. "It's obvious we're not playing to our ability. There's no doubt about that. I may have a little problem with the phrasing of that, but the point is probably spot-on. But it probably should be somebody else speaking for the group."
Joakim then quickly wet himself.
"I don't want to say anything. There's no … um, there's not … I don't have a problem with coach Skiles, OK? If he feels that way, I'll shut up," Noah said.
I don't think Joakim really needs to worry too much about coach Skiles. Sure, Skiles is probably a bit angry at him for speaking out like that without putting in the time, but even Skiles admitted Joakim's take on the situation is spot on.
Personally, I think Skiles is probably more pissed off it's not somebody else on the team saying it. Isn't that what Ben Wallace is supposed to do? Luol Deng? Kirk Hinrich? Why isn't one of the veterans coming out and saying this? Do they just not care?
Over my four-day weekend I heard what was probably the most shocking news of my entire life. Joakim Noah was busted in Gainesville, Florida for walking around with a cup full of cognac, and he had a joint hidden inside a pack of cigarettes in his pocket.
Let's compare what the two players did. Benson was on a boat with family and friends having a good time on Lake Travis. The same Lake Travis where there are constantly people out on their boats drinking with family and friends having a good time. Benson was accused of being drunk and disorderly with the cops, and got pepper sprayed. Cedric says he was 100% cooperative, and that the cops were the ones who were wrong. So far Benson has had a few witnesses come forward and support his claims. Not to mention that the police have audio of what actually happened out there that day, but for some reason, they don't want to release the tape.
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