Thursday, January 18, 2007

It's geaux time

It's warmer in Miami.


All right. So, I think the Bears are going to be playing in the NFC Championship Game this weekend against the United States New Orleans Saints. But that's only what I think, because I really haven't heard much about the Bears in the last several days. By all indications, the Saints are going to be doing some sort of football-related activity against someone this weekend and then the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts will play against one another while Peter King watches the game while sitting in a bathtub of mayonnaise and wearing a gray hoodie with the sleeves cut off.

But the Bears? Yeah, they're just there.

For example, this article examines the playoff teams and talks about how each one of them use a two-running back system. They mention Addai and Rhodes on the Colts, Maroney and Dillon on the Patriots and Bush and McAllister on the Saints.

Who's missing?

Oh, right. Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson on the Bears. It's almost like the guy's editor just clipped off the end of it where he talks about Chicago's backs. Because they certainly deserve to be mentioned. Let's take a look:

Addai/Rhodes: 1,722 yards, 4.1 yards-per-carry
Maroney/Dillon: 1,557 yards, 4.1 yards-per-carry
Bush/McAllister: 1,622 yards, 4.0 yards-per-carry
Jones/Benson: 1,857 yards, 4.1 yards-per-carry

I'd say that Jones and Benson stack up pretty well with any other the other. It's a given that the Saints' combination is more dynamic because of Bush's receiving skills, but I'd take Jones/Benson over the other two duos.

But ho hum. They're the Bears and they're boring. The defense is solid and a bit injured, Devin Hester hasn't done anything in a few weeks, the offense is fairly average. There's no storyline to discuss, other than the Rex Grossman angle, which everyone knows. In fact, sportswriters are now just shoehorning storylines into their articles. Take the Associated Press' lead sentence from the win against the Seahawks:
CHICAGO (AP) -- Two swings of the foot by Robbie Gould were all the Chicago Bears needed to offset any shortcomings in Rex Grossman's arm.

Rex Grossman threw for 282 yards on Sunday, with one interception that wasn't really his fault. His arm had no shortcomings. His arm was maybe THE reason they were able to win the game. But I'm willing to bet that the AP writer had that line in his head before the game started and didn't adapt once the game took place.

Try harder, sportswriters of America. Please.

On that note, I've made a few tweaks to the MMS system, so hopefully this week's picks will be improved. I did have 3-of-4 last week though, so I can't complain too much. I'll have the new picks tomorrow.

Posted by Eli @ 9:41 AM

Read or Post a Comment

I noticed that same B.S. lead-in on the AP story and thought the same thing. What an inexcusably bad attempt at journalism.

Posted by Blogger Bad Kermit @ 11:52:00 AM #
 
<< Home

Listening

∴ Josh Ritter
∴ Flight of the Conchords
∴ Bloc Party
∴ Radiohead
∴ Nickel Creek

Reading

∴ Fire Joe Morgan

Viewing

∴ The Cubs