NFL Picks, 2012 season, Week 10

by | Nov 5, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

They’ve been criticized for playing a soft schedule, which so far has included only one opponent with a winning record at the time of their game. Their quarterback was demonized for shoving an offensive lineman during a nationally televised loss to Green Bay.

But since that week two loss, the Bears are 6-0 and they looked like the real deal Sunday in putting a 50-spot up against the Tennessee Titans. Like Jay Cutler or not, believe in that supposedly aging defense or not, it’s a team that, at this point, looks loaded.

“The 2012 Chicago Bears have what it takes to make a trip back to the Super Bowl,” says Jake Perper, owner of Bearsbacker.com. “The Bears’ defense is elite, the Bears’ special teams is rock solid and the Bears’ offense is coming together, especially the running game with Matt Forte. If they can continue to stay healthy and can continue to create turnovers at will on defense, they will be hard to stop.”

Perper notes that the offense has to limit its mistakes and the team cannot afford many scares such as the one posed by a plucky Carolina squad a week ago. The tough part of the schedule, including back-to-back contests with Houston and San Francisco and four remaining division games, will determine where this team goes. But Perper is a believer.

“I think when it is all said and done, this year we will be calling them contenders.”

Hard to argue based on what we’ve seen so far.

Perper joined us for the week 10 pick segment. He follows Steve Isbitts from JoeBucsFan.com. Isbitts struggled to an 8-6 finish while Tony dominated at 11-3 and Andy was close behind at 10-4. That leaves the collective blogger community tied with the brothers heading into week 10. Ahh, the drama.

Week Nine Season
Celebrity Bloggers 8-6 83-49
Andy 10-4 83-49
Tony 11-3 83-49

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NFL Best Bets: Week 2 – 2012

by | Sep 11, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

Tony was the winner last week, hitting three of four picks, including an improbable over 38 on the Vikings/Jaguars game. Both of us fell victim to believing in the Buffalo Bills, a mistake nobody should make in this day and age. I was also unsuccessful in picking Detroit and Jacksonville for a 1-3 week. Better luck next time.

Year-to-date standings: Tony 3-1, Andy 1-3

Here goes for week two… (more…)

Forte has not earned top-tier money

by | Jul 13, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Free Agency, NFL Random Thoughts

I don’t dislike Matt Forte. And I can certainly understand his desire for a long-term contract, given the short span the careers of most running backs.

But as the Monday deadline approaches for franchised players to sign long-term deals, Forte also plays a major role in whether or not this deal gets done. He’s got to look in the mirror and realize the limits to his value.

It’s not that I don’t think he’s a good back. In the open-field he’s exciting to watch and he’ll break incredibly big plays a few times a season. But he reportedly has been citing deals given to Arian Foster and LeSean McCoy when discussing how he wants fair market value and that kind of coin, my friends, he has not earned.

Let’s compare: (more…)

By the Numbers: Best #81 in NFL History

By the Numbers: Best #81 in NFL History

by | May 29, 2012 | 80's, By the Numbers, Hall of Fame

We’ve reached the dog days of the NFL–I consider myself a pretty big fan of the NFL, and even I can’t get that jazzed up about OTA’s. And it’s not just because my team went 3-13 last year–seriously, if you get excited about OTA’s, you might need professional counseling. Or you might be a Packer fan.

While there’s some great debate going on in our annual Hall of Fame thread, we’ve decided to fill the dead space with a series of posts that has been kicking around in my head for some time, and recently came back to the front of my brain when I heard a local radio host discussing the uniform number choice of a highly touted rookie (in this case it was hockey, but that doesn’t matter).

A few years back I bought a book that discusses, across all professional sports, who the best players to wear each number was. Of course, some of the numbers skew towards football (50-98, where fewer athletes in other sports wear numbers that high regularly), but I also thought some of the lower numbers tended to focus more on baseball/basketball than I would have expected.

So I figured we would start a series of posts discussing each number in the NFL (randomly) and who wore that number the best in the history of the league (we’ll gladly consider AFL, and even some CFL and USFL where applicable), and allow the fans to vote for who they think was the best.

The first number up is one that has had a significant tradition of star players: #81

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In depth: Chicago Bears

by | Feb 20, 2012 | 2011 season, 2012 season, NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, NFL Random Thoughts

The Chicago Bears were 7-3 and finishing up a five-game win streak when quarterback Jay Cutler went down for the season with an injury. Caleb Hanie proved an unworthy replacement and the Bears’ season spiraled in a five-game losing streak.

Cutler will be back and Lovie Smith returns as head coach. But there’s also a fair amount of change taking place in the Windy City. Mike Tice has replaced Mike Martz as offensive coordinator and Phil Emery is the new general manager, replacing Jerry Angelo.

And though this was a competitive team when full strength in 2011, there are question marks along the offensive line, at wide receiver and at several spots on a solid-but-aging defense. So what will 2012 bring? Jake Perper, owner and head writer at Bears Backer, shared his thoughts with Zoneblitz: Here’s what he had to say:

Zoneblitz: What do you think of the hiring of Emery as general manager?

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