Some thoughts on yesterdays game, while trying to figure out how high the Bears could pick in next years draft…

• Say what you will about Grossmans fumble yesterday, but he (Rex) was probably the second best player on the field (even if Hester didn’t have an awesome day, he’s probably still the best player).
• Over 200 yards, no interceptions, and no forced throws into coverage.  I’m not sure what happend on the fumble (ie, if he was trying to run or still looking to throw), but if it had been, say, Ogunleye that tracked the other QB down and forced a fumble, noone would be all over that QB for the fumble, but going on about the good play by our guy.  Rarely do I see a double standard applied to a Bears player where our guy is always on the ‘bad’ side of things.
• So, Cedric Benson gets over 60 yards on his first two carries, finally seems to be having a good game (although, given how the offensive line played the rest of the game, who knows if he could have kept it up), and he gets the ball a whopping 3 times the rest of the half, and 7 overall.  For a team that ‘gets off the bus running’, the only thing the Bears coaching staff seems to be running is their collective mouths.
• Also, this ‘need’ to make sure the other Adrian Peterson gets his carries - just stop it.  We know what we have in Peterson - decent backup/change of pace/pass blocking guy.  We’re not real sure what we have with Benson yet.  Yes, I think he’s a bust - but he shows just enough every now and then to show he may not be worthless.  Granted, very few runningbacks are going to do well with this offensive line, but still, we need to find out if Benson is worth keeping around, or if it’s best to trade him/buy him out and start again.
• Receivers did OK yesterday.  Nothing there to really get on them for.
• Offensive play calling was horrible.  For instance, even the pair of interns they had calling the game yesterday knew that, if Hester is not being used in the offense (and he hadn’t had a play go his way the entire game to this point), then using him in a reverse is just dumb, dumb, dumb.  The fact Hester was stopped for a big loss was about the least suprising thing of the day.
• The offensive line - which was pretty darn good last year - is just awful.  Actually, Fred Miller is just awful.  Turnstyle.  The rest of the line might be OK (they’re not, but for arguments sake), but you have a guard that bad, it makes the whole line look bad, because his defensive responsibility is constantly getting past him into the backfield.
• Defense - below average at best.  Injuries have hurt, trading away some experience because this was going to be the year Mike Brown finally stayed healthy was a mistake, but they’re just not good.  I don’t know if Rivera made that much difference, or the team isn’t playing well, but this isn’t anywhere near the same defense we had last year, even with mostly the same guys.
• Special teams - returns, place kicks - all fine.  But last year, coverage on kickoffs and punts was outstanding.  We were constantly pinning guys deep in their own end of the field.  Now, we’re constantly giving up big return yards, or kicking balls out of bounds on kickoffs, etc.  Don’t know what happened there, but return coverage had also been below-average at best this year.
• Not much else to say.  Going to be four ‘who cares’ home games for me the rest of the season.  Bears have no shot this year, and they should quit pretending they do.  Play the  younger players, see what they can give you, and start planning for next year.
• Next week - Denver comes calling after a short week (they play tonight).  I still think Denver will win big.  There’s no reason for the crowd to be all that into the game (other than when Hester is on the field), and the Bears are better off losing out and getting better draft picks than working their way back to something near .500.

Go Bea……ah, screw it.  It’s not worth it.