[Posted 10:05 PM ET.]

Looks like “Bad Rex” showed up today, but the real culprit in my book is Ron Turner for his stupid, stupid, stupid playcalling. For Chrissakes will somebody please fire him? NOW?

Congratulations to Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning and the rest of the Colts, who played what we like to call “smart.” More analysis later.

…

[Updated 1:25 PM ET 2/10/07.]

Now that I’ve had the better part of a week to calm down:

Grossman made just enough bad plays to lose the game. This is not to say it was entirely his fault. I think Ron Turner should have called a smarter game. To wit:

The Bears should have used a shotgun formation on occasion to give Rex a little more time and reduce the risk of bobbled snaps. Problem: they ran the shotgun formation but a few times all season, and certainly didn’t practice it very much.

After Cedric Benson got injured, they should have turned to Adrian Peterson for the change of pace. He’s always been good for those four- or five-yard gains the Bears needed.

At the end of the first half, the Colts had the ball at the Bear 17, 4th and 2, clock running with under forty seconds left. The Bears should have called a timeout, forced Indy to try the field goal with 35 seconds left. That way, they’d get the ball back with 25-30 seconds and two timeouts left. Why not try to score, even if it’s a long shot? After all, the Colts were going to have possession to start the second half, and they were going to milk the clock.

(Answer #1: the Bears were afraid that if they called a timeout, the Colts would try to convert the 4th and 2, and if they did, they might go on to score a touchdown. Rebuttal: if that was Dungy’s inclination, he would have used one of his own timeouts with thirty seconds left. He didn’t, and was likely going to settle for the field goal attempt anyway.)

(Answer #2: the Bears were afraid that if they got the ball back, they might throw a pick and have it run back. That’s how most teams think these days; they’d rather let the clock run out than try a Hail Mary, or a quick drive into scoring position. Rebuttal: you’re in the frickin’ Super Bowl. Grow a pair and take a few shots downfield.)

In the third quarter, after the Colts had the ball the last 3:57 of the first half and the first 7:34 of the second half, the Bears offense faced a 2nd and 1 at the Indy 45. As Dr. Hmnahmna rightly points out below, they should have called the run play, picked up the yard, picked up four more downs, kept the drive going, and given the exhausted Bears’ defense more rest. So what actually happened? Pass play. Fumble, sack. Sack. Punt. In less than two minutes, the Colts got the ball back and the Bears’ D was right back on the field.

And finally, in the last two minutes of the game, down twelve, no timeouts, the Bears kept throwing underneath. Some might say, “Well, that’s what the Colts gave them.” In that situation, it doesn’t matter what your opponent gives you. You need to go bombs away, period. At that point in the game, dinkball means concession in a game you absolutely must not concede. You take every shot you possibly can at victory, because there’s no absolutely no reason to do otherwise.

Some people said the defense let the Bears down—for leaving Reggie Wayne wide open on the first touchdown, for the poor tackling. Fine, they could have played better. But consider this: that defense had three takeaways and gave up 22 points despite being on the field for 38 minutes against Peyton Manning and the Colts… What else do they need to do? (Evidently, they need to score points to make up for the offense.)

Last year, they said that the Bears were a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl champion. Well… with this year’s quarterback, they got a lot closer, but still came up short. Turn that pick-six in the fourth quarter into a touchdown drive and the Bears are up 24-22 instead of down 29-17. Maybe Grossman needs more time to keep developing, or maybe the Bears should hunt for a better quarterback. Either way, I think Turner needs to go.

The Bears have more talent now than they’ve had in ages, but in the free-agency era that won’t last long. It was a good season, but without the trophy and the rings, “good” doesn’t cut it. Better luck next year, but it’d better be next year.

3 Responses to “On the end of the Bears’ season (’06-’07).”

1. gatorbob Says:
   February 6th, 2007 at 4:49 PM

Commiserations on the Superbowl loss. Take it from a Leeds United fan – the losses only make the rare victories sweeter. There’s always next season!

1. Doctor Hmnahmna Says:
   February 7th, 2007 at 6:36 AM

Although Ron Turner should have had enough sense to call a run on second and one when his team’s defense was winded, this one’s not all on Ron and Bad Rex.

The Chicago defense got pushed around. Actually, that’s not strong enough. They got run over. If you give up nearly 200 yards rushing, and let the other team hold on to the ball for 38 minutes, you’re in trouble.

1. VDV Says:
   February 10th, 2007 at 1:32 PM

“[Letting] the other team hold on to the ball for 38 minutes” is not entirely the defense’s fault. The Bears gave the ball away four times–that isn’t the defense’s fault. The offense only had a few drives of more than four plays–that isn’t the defense’s fault. They could have played better, but the bulk of the blame lies on Turner, Grossman, and the offense.

If I have multiple Explorer windows open, is there any way to silence one or more of those windows without muting the entire computer? Bonus points if your answer includes neither a suggestion that I use Mozilla instead of IE nor a suggestion that I buy a Mac instead of a PC.

7 Responses to “Question re Internet Explorer.”

1. Doctor Hmnahmna Says:
   January 29th, 2007 at 7:25 AM

Can you be a little more specific? Are you annoyed by the navigation click? Are you talking about sounds associated with Web content?

You can silence the click like this:
Go to Start-Control Panel
Open Sounds and Audio Devices
Click on the “Sounds” Tab
About 3/4 of the way down on the list of sounds is the Windows Explorer sounds
Select “Complete Navigation” in the list, then select “(None)” in the Sounds pulldown menu directly below the list.
Click “Apply,” then “OK”

This will silence the click for all Explorer windows. If the sounds are associated with Web content, I would have to do some research.

1. gatorbob Says:
   January 30th, 2007 at 7:39 PM

An excellent question and one that I’ve been trying to figure out for a while (note: I use Firefox on a Mac). I think the kids will have to help out the old dogs on this one. Let me know if you get a good answer.

1. imnotretarded Says:
   January 31st, 2007 at 1:17 PM

if you get internet explorer 7 here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx then you should be able to use tabbed browsing which should solve your problems. oh and i know the bears are in the playoffs and all but i was seeing if you have been watching the penguins lately? Eaton is back and Crosby is awesome to watch. i have been to 4 games so far this year including his 6 point game against philadelphia. Me and [the Arabic Camel] are on the same intramural soccer team… which is borderline pathetic. Our goalie says he is all-state from key west but is [awful] and half or team must have last played soccer when the were 6 years old and eating ants on the field. Hope all is going well.

1. blueroses Says:
   February 2nd, 2007 at 9:52 PM

I waited, in hopes someone might reply with more of an answer than me, but as it seems no one is going to– I’ve looked everywhere I can think and haven’t found a way to mute one window while leaving the remaining capable for sound. Sorry.

1. VDV Says:
   February 3rd, 2007 at 2:24 PM

Imnotretarded–

How have you gotten to see 4 Pens games? Do you fly up? How did you get to see Pens-Flyers?

1. blueroses Says:
   February 3rd, 2007 at 6:16 PM

haha, for some reason these didn’t show up yesterday. Hm. Nevermind, then.

1. imnotretarded Says:
   February 5th, 2007 at 1:35 PM

i took a penguins road trip in December. stopped in DC to see that awesome 4 goal comeback then saw 2 more games in pittsburgh vs the flyers and islanders. Then i went to the game in tampa a few weeks ago. Im definitly going to the next game in tampa, which ia a sunday at the end of the month. You should come especially if you havnt seen crosby and malkin play yet.

At first glance, the average red-blooded American male might hope that Colleen Pavelka does seminars:

Nine months pregnant and married to a fervent Bears fan with tickets to Sunday’s NFC Championship game, Colleen Pavelka didn’t want to risk going into labor during the game against the New Orleans Saints.

Due to give birth on Monday, Pavelka’s doctor told her Friday she could induce labor early. She opted for the Friday delivery.

“I thought, how could [Mark] miss this one opportunity that he might never have again in his life?” said Pavelka, 28, from the southwestern Chicago suburb of Homer Glen.

I love the Bears, and am thrilled to death that they’re going to the Super Bowl. I hope they win. I also hope one day to marry a Bears fan with a name more pronounceable than my own, even if only marginally so. And upon first reading this story, I wanted to marry a girl just like Mrs. Pavelka (sight unseen, granted).

But then I saw the trap: if a wife loves her husband enough that she’d induce labor so he wouldn’t miss a football game, the husband had better love her enough that he’d miss the football game so she wouldn’t induce labor—or at least he’d better have enough good sense to miss a game that conflicted with his child’s impending birth.

When your wife says, “It’s okay, honey, I’ll undergo an expensive and medically unnecessary procedure so that you can go to the big game,” there is, believe it or not, a correct response. That response is to say, “No, my dearest sweetie-pookums, there’s no rush. Let the baby arrive on his own time, and I’ll be there for you no matter when the baby comes—besides, how could I miss this one opportunity that I might never have again in my life?”

Methinks Mr. Pavelka has no idea how deep a hole he’s dug for himself. Was he so blinded by the Bears’ game that he couldn’t see any further into the future than Sunday afternoon? Doesn’t he realize that the reason he’ll never have another argument with his wonderful, understanding, selfless wife is that he’s preemptively forfeited all of them? He will never get his way on anything ever again. The fool.

There could be a simpler, less sinister explanation. Perhaps she, too, is a huge Bears fan who simply wanted to watch the game in peace, without her husband around. Or perhaps the induction was no big deal either way.

…

Glad the Bears won–but if they hadn’t, the only other pro team coached by The Ditka would have gone to the Super Bowl. How can we not see his hand in all matters?

One Response to “Wife of the Year.”

1. alwayswet Says:
   February 20th, 2007 at 10:55 PM

that is alittle ridiculous

After careful consideration, I have decided that if I could have any superpower, it would be the ability to fall asleep at will. Would it help me protect the world from whatever threats it might face? No. Would it help me achieve total world domination should I go the villain route? No. But sleeping at will would improve my life far more radically than possessing Herculean strength, or a quiver of thunderbolts, or a gaze that could turn people to cinders.