No, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth.  I missed the previous two games due to being out of town, and have just now had time to talk about the ‘game’ on Sunday.  I didn’t get to see anything of the previous two games except the last drive against the Eagles, so didn’t have a whole lot to add other than the Bears are a below-average team - nothing that’s news to anyone watching them play.  However, I did sit through that seemingly long game on Sunday, so without further delay, a few thoughts on the last four weekends whle wondering what the Bears will do to adress the RB position in the off-season…

• The Bears really are thisclose to being tied with Miami at 0-9.  And they’d probably be better off in the long term by potentially being historically bad rather than just bad.

• At some point, the Bears have to see what Orton can do with this team.  It’s pretty clear that Griese will never be anything better than a decent backup.

• I’m even OK with going back to Grossman.  Given his up and downs, I don’t think he’ll be expensive for anyone to sign, and given that he’s still a relatively young QB having only played in one full season, I’d like to see if he can develop further before throwing in the towel.

• My nightmare scenario is Grossman going to Green Bay - where they actually can develop a QB - and seeing him flat-out own the Bears for the next decade the way Farve owned the Bears for the 1990s and early part of this decade.

• Still, regardless of the interceptions, in my mind, QB is not the problem on this team in terms of offense - it’s Cedric Benson.  He was supposed to be ‘the guy’, and right now, he’s not even playing well enough to be ‘a guy.’  He couldn’t even get it done against a team that had given up a 100-yard rusher for something like five straight games.

• Hester needs to be involved more as a reciever, especially on crossing routes.  Skip the end-arounds - they aren’t fooling anyone.

• Speaking of Hester, he seemed to be trying to do too much for a lot of the game on returns.  Once he stopped that, and just started taking what was there instead of going backwards trying to create something that wasn’t there, he had a big return that was, unfortunately, wiped out due to an uneccessary block in the back.

• Hopefully, however, his not-so-great day will lead to more teams kicking to him on kickoffs and punts.

• We now know that Goulds range is about 50 yards.  I thought for the life of me that 53 yarder was good - just came up a bit short.

• Defense didn’t play badly at all, although against Oakland, that’s not high praise.  Urlacher still doesn’t seem all there.  I do wonder if he’ll ever be able to get back to 100% for a full year if he has an arthritic back.  It’s a shame too - he’s as good an MLB as we may see in Chicago for awhile.

• Griese had a great drive against the Eagles to win the game.   It’s too bad the momentum from that didn’t carry over into the following week.

• And I don’t care how much the Lions have improved this year - there’s no reason they should have lost to them this year.  Twice.

• Finally - and the reason I don’t have much to say about this game - that was about as bad a football game as I’ve seen.  Sloppy.  Ugly.  No flow at all.  Very little excitement.  The best thing about that game was the Grossman to Berrian touchdown - not because it put the Bears in the lead, but because with a four point lead, the chances of overtime were very slim.

I don’t care much about how the Bears do from here on out - I’m torn between always wanting to see them win, and getting a better draft pick this off-season, but for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE play at least an exciting to watch football game.  I’d have rather seen the Cowboys/Giants game than those three-hours masquerading as a football game on Sunday.

I was so proud of the Bears last night. I really was. Here’s a recap of the game.

Cedric Benson gained 24 yards on 10 carries, Adrian Peterson added 8 yards on 5 attempts including a 1-yard TD and Garrett Wolfe produced a game-high 28 yards on eight carries.

Even though they created an explosive win last night, the Bears maintain all around that the win was not bent on revenge. YEAH, RIGHT.

Maybe they weren’t after vengeance, but the feeling was probably felt by most real Bears fans around Chicago, myself included. I seriously wanted them to hurt the Colts and possibly sit one of them, any one of them, out for the season. Much to my dismay, however, there weren’t any fatalities.

Chicago now has two main returners, Danieal Manning and Devin Hester. Danieal Manning’s return came immediately after the Colts had taken a 7-0 lead on Joseph Addai’s 4-yard TD run on the first play of the second quarter. Hester, now at WR, laughs at the comparisons the media is making towards him and Manning, realizing that they’ve already found him a replacement.

Manning blasted up the middle through a hole created by a wedge of blockers, dashed up the left sideline and was eventually angled out of bounds.

“I trust the guys that are in front of me blocking,” Manning said. “I knew they would have a block for me. I ran in there no holds barred and just right through there and a hole popped up.

“I thought I was gone at one point. Once I got around the kicker, I peeked back to my right and I saw the guy closing me off. He forced me to the sideline, so there was nothing else I could do except get as much as I could.”

This is something that I like to see the Bears do.  Great offense, great coverage, and great performance.  In the wake of Michael Vick and other crazy football players, it’s great to see a silver lining. Keep it up guys.

Final Score:  27-24

After the win against Houston last week, my faith was restored in the Bears’ goals for the season. Yes, my faith flutters from time to time, but who’s doesn’t?

Grossman looked good (7 of 7-48 yrds), Benson looked good (5 times for 23 yards), most of the new guys played very well, although what’s-his-face (Oh yeah, Griese) threw an interception; that’s where my faith stumbled a little, but hey, nobody’s perfect.  Umm….. where’s Orton??  The rookies did well too, with NIU pick Garret Wolfe carrying seven times for 15 yards total.  I liked seeing the new guys play, they had a fire and desire in them that is only fueled by the possibility of not making the squad.

As long as nobody’s hurt badly, I’m happy.

Things are getting REALLY competitive though.  When teammates start takin’ slugs at one another during practice, you can tell the tension’s high. I hope they let that aggression out on the Colts, in their Super Bowl rematch this Monday.  I wouldn’t miss that game….this time, we may have the upper hand for real. However, it’ll be a tough one, just like last time, so let’s not sing “Bear Down, Chicago Bears” just yet.

With all of the developments going on in Chicago and the city’s new obsession with smoke free restaurants, bars, and the like, there’s one new place that will be going smoke free later this month: Soldier Field.

There’s a rich tradition at this historic stadium that includes the stogies (which are a bit repulsive to me, honestly) and a lot of fans may be upset to know that they will not be allowed from now on. There wasn’t a whole lot of smoking to begin with because there were designated smoking areas and Soldier Field in general was smoke free, but starting August 25, there will be no designated smoking areas either inside or outside the stadium. According to the new regulations, a first time violator will receive what is called a “smoking card”, and have to hand over their ticket. Repeat offenders will be asked to leave and may also lose their season ticket privileges.

The statute was passed at the state level and prohibits smoking at all public venues, including all sports arenas.

Although I think smoking is a terrible habit, I think Chicago may be going just a little bit overboard with this new smoke free statute. Besides, how hard is it going to be to to monitor everyone and all their junk under all that Bears paraphernalia, ESPECIALLY in the winter when it feels like -35F by the lake??? That stogie smoke may be the only thing to keep you warm!!!!

I don’t know about any of you, but I am so ready for this season to get started.  I’m anxious.  After hearing about Tank Johnson’s run in with the law last time, and learning the results of the tests, I am even more upset.  I understand the Bears keeping their franchise safe from bad press, but a lot of devoted Bears fans will be disappointed this year.

In other news, I’m expecting great things from Garrett Wolfe, Greg Olsen and Tommie Harris .  At first I didn’t think Harris would be all right in time for training camp, but from the reports, it seems he’s going to be just fine. Let’s gear up and Bear down for our Aug. 20th Super bowl re-match!

What are some things you’re looking forward to this season?