3601

I will say that having Martz in charge of the Bears’ offense is making the Bears an interesting team. You know their defense is going to be good. But I think he’ll need a different quarterback than Cutler to make his offense work consistently.

3602

I am surprised that the Bears are 8-3 and leading the division. They have a solid defense. I could see them having a run in the playoffs.

3603

It always surprises me to look at the overall record of the Bears this year. Whenever I’ve seen them play they just look so offensively inept. Their O line leaks like a sieve, Cutler gets beat up like a pinata, and their running game is suspect. How do they do it?

3604

They bribe the officials into making dicey calls in the endzone.

3605

Because that was the premise of my original statement, which a few people seemed to miss.

I’d agree that with Rusty Smith at QB, the Titans deserve to be in that list. And that also ties into our other conversation about QBs – with a semi-decent QB like Kerry Collins at the helm, I think they become a markedly better team.

I do think the Vikings, Cowboys and Browns are a small notch above teams like the 49ers. In a year where even teams with awful records like the Bills, Lions and Panthers are playing competitive football on a weekly basis, I guess I just have a low opinion of the 49ers and lump them in with that bottom group.

3606

Don’t worry, you Lions fans will have your shot for revenge this weekend :)

And the O-Line for the Bears, while still not good, hasn’t been disastrous since before the bye week, they got some guys back, moved others around, and have had the same starters since then. Although they still have a few plays a game where they let someone come through completely unblocked. Cutler seems to make the most mistakes when he’s antsy about getting clobbered every down, so with the line settling in he’s been better about making terrible decisions.

The defense has been great, they’ve got Urlacher and Tinaisamoa back this year after missing all last year, and Peppers is a beast. D-line getting pressure definitely seems to help with the cover-2.

I hope they don’t waltz into Detroit assuming a victory is a given, an O-Line breakdown with Suh could be fatal for Cutler, and the backup QBs will not get it done.

3607

This Derek Anderson meltdown during the MNF post-game last night is absolutely precious. If I were the Cardinals, I’d cut the guy simply for being a complete moron. You just can’t have someone this stupid as your team leader.

3608

And yet, they are left with Max Hall after that, because they got the only other potential option they had.

It’s not like Matt was great or anything, but when you’re faced with Derek Anderson, who only managed to put together one competent season in his entire NFL career, and two rookies, maybe they should have given him a shot.

According to wikipedia, he started 29 total games, had a passer rating of about 70 and 8 more picks than TDs. So he wasn’t an awesome QB…and that said, he wasn’t ever really given a chance to find is footing, imo.

3609

That was a pretty stupid question, too. Just because a guy’s talking to his teammate and laughing about something doesn’t mean he doesn’t take the situation seriously. (And just because he’s no good doesn’t mean he’s not working hard.)

3610

It’s not a stupid question, if only because Gruden called it out on the broadcast. The reporter was simply asking for the context, basically giving Anderson an opportunity to deflect the criticism that had already begun. Even Whisenhunt, when asked about it, said he hadn’t seen it but did not think it was appropriate behavior.

When your team sucks and you are getting your ass beaten at home for the second week in a row to a marginal team (they got lit up by Seattle last week), you have to look like you are unhappy about it.

3611

I don’t think it was a stupid question at all. Fans were already expressing annoyance that Anderson was laughing on the sideline, and the reporter simply asked him what he was laughing at. He never suggested Anderson wasn’t taking things seriously – Anderson just had a total meltdown after getting called on the completely idiotic response of “I wasn’t laughing.”

And by the way, I thought that was one of the least convincing deliveries of I TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY I’ve ever seen. I’m sure he does take his job seriously, but wow, he just looked like an awful actor for the second half of that tirade.

3612

I’m not saying it wasn’t a stupid way to answer. He probably could’ve given the context and gotten away with it. Or at least he could have lied about it convincingly.

What I’m saying is: How is frowning and sulking going to improve the Cardinals’ on-field performance?

3613

I don’t know, man. That’s kind of a wary way to phrase it. When you’re in a bad situation, and believe me, that’s a bad situation, I think you can at the very least show the appropriate restraint. No one is asking for him to crucify himself on the sideline, but he can at least show that it means something to suck so much. As people have said, the reporter gave him the opportunity to clarify and he just blew up.

3614

The question may have been dumb, but if he hadn’t responded to it correctly, he would have just stayed that, a dumb question. Instead he got all angry and stormed off. Hence, the full media blitz on it.

3615

Yeah, but to me, that’s bullshit. Everyone deals with bad situations differently. Some people frown. Some people swear and curse. Some people laugh. And some people don’t look any different from the way they do when good things are happening.

As people have said, the reporter gave him the opportunity to clarify and he just blew up.

Yeah, and that was a bad PR move on his part. He probably blew up because to him, the reporter wasn’t giving him the opportunity to “clarify,” but rather the subtext and implications of the question were very clear and he didn’t particularly care for 'em.

And given the way the guy performed, it’s no surprise he’s getting reeeeeeeeeeeeally defensive.

3616

But not all people are handling it in front of 50,000 paying fans. He handled it poorly. Not sure if it is worth defending.

3617

Does anyone have a link to the actual sideline laughing?

Also, one comment on Quarterbacks defining the team. It is my opinion, after watching McNabb this season, that Donovan is the perfect quarterback for me.

And my vision of how to fix the Redskins.

When he gets a decent pocket, Donovan has looked like a pro bowl calibre QB - stepping into the pocket and delivering the ball with accuracy and authority to a variety of reads.

When the interior line has collapsed (75%+ of the passing plays), Donovan has looked weak, and flustered, and his passes have been short, long, off target, etc.

It is my opinion that this will make the Skins address the interior line next year (as they have no other options at QB) - to suit Donovan’s strengths.

And maybe, just maybe, the Skins will finally get back to the Hog traditions of old.

3618

So if the Titans are losing 27-3 this weekend to Jacksonville and the cameras catch Jeff Fisher and Kerry Collins laughing on the sidelines, you’ll be cool with that? You think that’s acceptable behavior?

3619

I am casually following the NFL this year for the first time. It’s only in a general sense because I don’t care about any of the teams.

The biggest surprise was how well the sport generates talk show noise to blather about each week. I can see how addicting that would be. I’d better bail out before I pick up a team and it’s too late for me.

3620

It wouldn’t even occur to me to judge it.

If I override this “judge a player’s football performance by how they play football” circuit and try to judge, a few thoughts occur to me:

  1. I don’t know what they’re laughing about, so I lack the knowledge to make a judgment, and
  2. For some people, laughter is an effective way to deal with adversity that does not in any way reflect how seriously they take a given situation.
  3. There are no known instances of a player’s performance improving because they were frowning and sulking.

So I’m still left with: It’s a stupid thing to get worked up about. It’s not even really bright to consider it, but it’s entering “sack o’ hammers” and “unable to pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel” levels of stupidity to actually make any kind of a deal out of it.