In depth 2013: Chicago Bears

by | Mar 29, 2013 | 2012 season, 2013 season, NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, NFL Random Thoughts

 

After an up-and-down season led to a 10-6 finish that did not include the playoffs, the Chicago Bears surprised many observers by firing head coach Lovie Smith, despite his becoming the second coach in the Super Bowl era to take the team to the big game.

So the Bears enter a new era in 2013. Marc Trestman will try to join Bud Grant and Marv Levy as coaches who have had success as NFL head coaches following successful tenures in the Canadian Football League. He’ll do so with a heavily re-tooled offensive line and a defense that will be without Brian Urlacher for the first time since he was drafted in 2000.

Jake Perper, owner and head writer of Bears Backer, so far likes the direction the Bears are headed. Here are the thoughts he shared:

Zoneblitz: Chicago finished 10-6 in 2012, but missed the playoffs. How would you characterize the season? (more…)

ZB Notebook 1-13-2013

by | Jan 13, 2013 | 2012 season, NFL Random Thoughts

The Divisional playoff round is one of my favorite weekends of sport all year round and this year exemplified why. The Denver/Baltimore game and the Atlanta/Seattle contest provided extreme drama. The San Francisco/Green Bay game, which is the one I was not able to watch, introduced Colin Kaepernick as perhaps the league’s next great quarterback. And the Patriots/Texans game … well, nothing is perfect.

I was pretty surprised only by the results of the Ravens’ double overtime win over the Broncos. I had started to feel, like many, that Denver was the best team in the NFL. But the result, I think, does lend some credence to the possibility that the one downside to Peyton Manning’s selection of Denver as his later-career home is the potential for cold playoff games. No matter what anyone says, that could play havoc with his neck issues.

Nonetheless, the Ray Lewis retirement party carries on for one more week and I think the AFC Championship game rematch between his Ravens and the Patriots should be a fascinating game.

The NFC game also presents plenty of intrigue, with a rough, physical defense from San Francisco going up against the 2010s’ version of the 49ers of yesteryear, the Falcons. I’m already looking forward to it.

Can we hold off on Tebow talk?: I was tuning in Saturday morning to NFL Network for pregame information and before I got any information at all about the games coming up in mere hours, I was subjected to two segments on Tim Tebow’s future as an NFL quarterback. (more…)

Did Bears make mistake firing Smith?

by | Jan 8, 2013 | 2012 season, NFL Random Thoughts

Heading into the weekend of week 17, I had a Twitter exchange with Da Bears Blog wherein he indicated he did not believe Smith’s job was in jeopardy, regardless of whether Chicago won or lost in week 17 against Detroit.

The Bears went on to win the game, but Smith was fired regardless of the 10-6 record posted by the Bears. I thought there was a decent chance Smith’s job was on the line but guessed that he would not be canned if the team finished 10-6, even if it missed the playoffs.

We both were wrong, but looking at some of the candidates teams are looking at right now, I’m starting to think Da Bears Blog should have been right.

The Chicago Tribune reported today that the Bears have a list of 12 potential candidates they might interview. AND they aren’t letting their assistant coaches interview anywhere else because they might want to retain guys like Rod Marinelli and Jeremy Bates, respectively the defensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

(more…)

NFL Best Bets: Week 16 – 2012

by | Dec 20, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

I’m not sure if my brother feels this way, but for me,  most seasons, there usually is a point where I feel like I’ve started to feel like I’m at least getting a hint for which teams are good, which are bad, which know how to go for the jugular and which are prone to bad upsets.

Not this year. I don’t have a flippin’ clue. It played out again last week in a 1-3 mark that dropped my best bets to 26-33-1 for the season. That sounds bad – and it is terrible. But it’s still actually ahead of my brother, who went 0-4 and hasn’t made a correct bet in this segment since week 14.

We are committed to playing this out for the season, but if we were really playing this out in Vegas, we’d either have been committed or we’d have been left lying in an alley with our legs broken multiple times.

On that upbeat note, happy holidays and here are our bets. (more…)

ZB Notebook 11-20-12

by | Nov 20, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Random Thoughts

I’m not going to say the Atlanta Falcons are a bad team. At 9-1 they deserve more respect than that, but they may be the least convincing 9-1 team I’ve seen in awhile.

The offense remains explosive, but the team lost five picks to Arizona at home last weekend in a game that shouldn’t have been as close as four points. The run game is nonexistent and now news has leaked that an already injury-tainted offensive line will now be down Joe Hawley for four games due to a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy.

This isn’t a good thing for a team whose top runner has put up just 61 yards in the last two games. The defense isn’t much better either. LaRod Stephens-Howling broke the century mark and scored against this tackling-challenged bunch.

Truth be told, Atlanta’s impressive record has been built on close wins against less-than-stellar opponents. Six wins have been by a touchdown or less. And some of those victories have come against Kansas City, San Diego, Washington, Oakland, Philadelphia, Dallas and Arizona. (more…)