Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Ben Johnson

The Bears played the season opener just like I thought they were going to. It was a bit chilly sitting in the 300 level just under the shade but it was a good day regardless. The offense, as expected, kicked ass after a slow start. The defense, as expected, wasn’t great. I’ll get to that in just a bit but it was a game that Bears were suppose to win and they did it. The Bears needed some good fortune to win this.

Offense: You know what makes me happy? Wide receivers who actually know how to run a route properly and at the same time, catch the ball. For the most part, we saw that in this game. Cutler was only sacked twice and it didn’t come back to haunt the team and he was able to throw to six different receivers. Brandon Marshall had a great game with nine catches for 119 yards and a touchdown. I am already getting a bit of a man-crush on Alshon Jeffery. He had a sweet touchdown catch and three catches total for 80 yards. I stressed this a lot in the last two seasons but the Bears, once again, almost had an even amount of carries to passes. If this continues, the offense will continue to be successful. Matt Forte nearly had 82 yards rushing with a touchdown and Michael Bush (by cracky), contributed in a fine way by getting two touchdowns.

Defense: I wrote this last week, but the offense can’t realistically score 40 points a game. It was great today but the defense has to get better. Urlacher left the game early because it was out of reach so that was nice to see. With 45 seconds to go in the first half, Luck drives the Colts down the field because the defense still cannot figure out how to cover a receiver. Luckily (no pun intended), he ran out of time to get a touchdown and Vinatieri missed a field goal. In the other three legitimate scoring chances, he drove his team down the field but threw for three interceptions. The first interception was by Jennings and that was the wind basically knocking it down right into his hands. It was a good pass though. Jennings did get another interception but the second one was tipped by him in Conte’s hands in the endzone. Let’s be nice and say the Colts had the potential to score 21 more points if it wasn’t for those fortunate bounces. The defense let Luck pass for over 300 yards. They can get away with this garbage in this game but in the future, it will come back to bite them in the ass.

Special Teams: Robbie Gould hit two field goals and Devin Hester had a good return or two to help the Bears with good field position. I give them an A.

Next up are the Packers at Lambeau. You can bet that Aaron Rodgers is pissed off with the loss against the 49ers. I have a bad feeling he is going to take it out on the Bears. He did the same thing last year on Christmas night.

If this upcoming season for the Bears doesn’t already look shitty, what Brian Urlacher said on Sunday in an interview will probably seal the deal for you. Even if Urlacher plays every game this season, it will not be at 100%. The Bears, historically, have sucked when Urlacher doesn’t play or plays at a limited level. That’s what we are going to get this season. The defense sucks as it is and it will be worse with Urlacher not playing at a top level. He is one of the best linebackers in franchise history and in the last two years, he played really well after having some injury problems before that.

Urlacher also said in the interview that he felt he could have played three or four more years at a high level. We all can thank Lovie Lee Smith for cutting his career short. There was no point in playing him with the Bears losing their previous five games before that and being eliminated from playoff contention the week before. Here I am with the pessimism again but rightfully so. Urlacher may only play this year and maybe the next before calling it quits. If someone wants to say that the Bears have a great offense and that’s what could put them over the top, you are a moron. Teams win Super Bowls because of good defenses. If you want to know what a great offense with a shitty defense can do, ask the Packers how they did last year. They put up video game numbers on offense in the regular season but when the playoffs rolled around, that didn’t get them anywhere.

This also can be blamed on one, Jerry Angelo. I wrote a few months back that even after he is long gone, Angelo is still screwing the Bears.   Angelo should have tried to get a linebacker for the future and instead, ignored the situation. No. Nick Roach doesn’t count and neither does some other bum he drafted. I am already going to be looking forward to next year’s draft where linebackers and offensive lineman will be priorities. Let’s not forget about Lance Briggs who is getting older as well. The windows is a crack away from being closed. This is not only Lovie’s last shot, but this team as well before rebuilding begins for good. I will be at the game Sunday as well as the guys from Fire Ron Turner. We’ll both have recaps of the game.

Buckle up Bears fans. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Monday Night Raw at the AllState Arena was pretty good even though it was yet, another grueling three-hour show. I’ll have a recap at Falls Count Anywhere in the next day or two. Here are some pics for you Chucky. Enjoy.

Enjoy the Labor Day weekend folks.

This is more of a rant (Which article I write ISN’T a rant?) but I am very ANGRY at the fact that EA Sports no longer features Gus Johnson in it’s Madden game. I read a few months back that the always awesome Jim Nantz Underpants and Phil Simms would take over for Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth. It’s enough Gus Johnson doesn’t do any more games in the NFL nor NCAA since being let go by CBS and now, he is not in even in the game. He took a job as Fox’s college football announcer so that’s what we, as fans have been reduced to.

Gus Johnson is one of the most entertaining announcers I have heard. If you search his name in YouTube, you’ll get many exciting calls from college basketball over the years and even some from the NFL. It’s a travesty that he doesn’t call more games. In the new Madden game, I have already been annoyed by Nantz and Simms. To make matters worse, there already seems to be a glitch in the game where Simms repeats the same damn sentence numerous times in one drive that I had playing the game the other night. It’s annoying to say the least and I already feel like shutting off the volume on the announcers part of the game.

In a perfect world, Gus Johnson should be calling every hockey, basketball and football game. If any of you know how intense this guy gets, can you imagine him being an MC at a wedding? I can’t imagine him calling the toss of the boutique by the bride or announcing the people who are walking down the aisle. I would pay him to call my wedding.

Note to Fox: Give this guy more games to call. Sundays will suck when I am forced to listen to morons like Kenny Albert, Thom Brenneman and the kiss of death to Chicago sports, Dick Stockton. Sam Rosen is awesome but it’s just not enough. WE WANT GUS DAMNIT.

I’ll try to keep this short but first, the game Saturday was exciting even though it was preseason. For the first time in a long time, the Bears have receivers who can actually run a route correctly and catch the ball. So far, it looks like Emery has nailed it with picking up Brandon Marshall on Alshon Jeffrey. There was one slant I believe in that game that Jeffrey ran to perfection and nearly scored a touchdown on it. Michael Bush (by cracky) also looked pretty good running the ball.

For the game Friday, I think most of us will be paying attention to the offensive line and how they react to quite possibly, the best defense in the NFL. Their front four is scary and has been for quite a while. That is one of the main reasons why they have won two Super Bowls in the last five years. All around, the defense is spectacular. I only pray that the Bears cornerbacks and safeties take notes. On the offensive side, we have to pray that Cutler doesn’t get killed. I thought the line looked much better against the Redskins on Saturday but this is a much different story. The starters are expected to play into the third quarter.

Discuss.

We are just one preseason game into the year and Lovie Smith has already tried to feed the fans bullshit. Last week, he says Brian Urlacher misses practice for “personal reasons”. Everyone knew that Urlacher was probably going from doctor to doctor to find out what is wrong with this knee. Then, the news the breaks on Tuesday that he ended up getting his knee cleaned out.

Reports say that he should be ready go by the season opener but let’s be honest, I don’t believe anything that comes out of Lovie’s mouth or anyone else on that team. I understand why the players would have to say that crap but the fact that Lovie Smith, has continuously insulted the paying customers by lying, is unnecessary. I’ll speak for myself as well as the guys at Fire Ron Turner, that we’re the guys who put money into that franchise by going to nearly every home game every season. If I shoved bullshit down every customer at my business like Lovie Smith does, I wouldn’t have enough to make ends meet.

Along with the consistent lying, the guy is also an idiot for playing Urlacher in the final regular season game which was meaningless to begin with. Being that it’s the Bears, fans always have a feeling that something bad is going to happen anyway, so prevent it when you can. In all these years he has been the coach, he has mismanaged his players and put some of them (Hester at wide receiver) in a position to fail. Instead of playing some of these players to their strengths, he plays them to their weaknesses because he “thinks they can help the team”.

I remember a game against the Seahawks in 2007 where the Bears were just trying to stay in the wild card race. Cedric Benson on his first run, goes 50 or 60 yards for a touchdown and the Bears are up early. The rest of the game, he hardly had the chance to touch the ball and the Bears insisted on passing the rest. The Bears promptly lose the game and the season is in turmoil if it already wasn’t. I remember it as if it were yesterday when Lovie took the podium after the game. Someone asked about Cedric Benson not getting many carries after that. Lovie replied with something along the lines of, “Well, if you keep doing that, they’ll eventually stop that”. That’s stupidity at it’s finest.

I’ll be glad when Lovie Smith is shown the door shortly after the New Year because even with the vast improvements of the team, if Urlacher isn’t healthy which he won’t be, they are screwed before it even begins. I’ll be shocked and I am sure most will agree if he is healthy. The defense sucks even more without him. In addition, after seeing J’Marcus Webb in the game against the Broncos last week, we need to pick a week when Cutler will have his season-ending injury. Look on the bright side though, at least Johnny Knox won’t cause it by slipping and forcing Jay to run 50 yards down the field to prevent the other team from scoring.

No worries though ladies and gentleman. We have the shitty combo of Jason Campbell and Josh McCown ready to go and if anything happens to those guys, Todd Collins is only one call away.

Your thoughts on the Bears opening up the preseason this Thursday against the Broncos and anything else that is on your mind.

Enjoy the week folks.

It was August 1st, 2008. This site picked up where the old one left off. If I thought this place would last longer than a year, I would have probably be called insane. But that seems to be the case. There have been fun moments on here as well as some that weren’t all that great. We’ve spent a total of six-seven years as a group.

This is a site where all of you can write just about what you want, when you want. Anything is up for discussion even if it’s not sports. As every year goes by, I cannot thank all of you guys enough. First off, thanks to Scott and Keith for contributing their own articles on this site. Keith, if you’re reading this, get better my friend and we’ll see you back on here soon.

In the last year, the hits have been up and while we’ve lost some old-timers, we’ve gained many new readers and that is an awesome thing. I know I provide this place for you guys, but all of you keep it running. Some of us has disagreed on some stuff but we keep it friendly and that’s how it always should be. One thing we can all agree on, Chucky’s rants are always the best even if he is a lunatic but he’s OUR lunatic.

Here’s to four more.