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In a recent article on Yahoo.com Charles Robinson quotes Jay Cutler as saying:

“We’re going to run the ball,” Cutler said. “I think I’ve learned the hard way [that] you’ve got to run the ball and you have to stop the run to get anywhere in this league and make the playoffs and make a push for the Super Bowl. That’s not going to change, especially here in December with the wind and the weather. You’re going to have to be able to grind out those four- and five-yard runs.”

It is great that Cutler recognizes the Bears philosophy, and almost equally as important is that the Bears keep that philosophy. Running, and stopping the run is so important not for what it is, but because it will allow Cutler the most opportunities to win games.

With Pace, Williams, Kreutz, and Forte, the Bears should be in good standing to make this philosophy work on the offensive side of the ball. The question marks at defense, and receiver unfortunately still remain.

I feel like the newest hot button topic with Bears fans is Plaxico Burress. To a degree I understand. I also don’t understand.

Here is what I do understand: this is a Chicago Bears team without a legitimate, veteran, wide receiver presence. It is a Bears team that had no consistent receiver last year, and didn’t find a veteran for that role for this upcoming season. Devin Hester is the closest thing to a number one receiver, and that is one heck of a scary thought. Could Hester be that guy, maybe. Is he for sure that guy, no one can convince me that he is that guy for sure. He certainly wasn’t that solid, game in, game out, number one last year. So, to say the least, we at bare minimum have serious question marks at that position going into this season.

Here is what I don’t understand. Why in the world would Plaxico be the guy Chicago “has to have”. Is Plax good, oh yeah, he’s more than good, he is top 10 in the league good. Is he consistent, yep. Will he play more than six games this upcoming season, I have my doubts.

Roger Goodell is not going to look lightly upon Burress’s not so recent actions. The first thing to figure out is if he will actually be a free man come this fall. I think there are some serious doubts about whether that will even be the case. After all of that is solved, then he will have to deal with Commissioner Goodell in his own personal hall of justice. Neither one of those issues should be taken lightly.

If all of those things happen to come out in Burress’s favor-which I can tell you right now, they will not-then he will be a hot commodity on the free agent market. Let’s just say he doesn’t go to jail, and he has to serve a 5 game suspension. I think that is a completely reasonable, conservative guestimation. It would still be my contention that the Bears should want nothing to do with the guy.

Why, you may ask? Because even if he doesn’t go to jail, he will at least be on probation. There is no way that that guy will be able to handle not getting into trouble during a lengthy probationary period. The guy doesn’t have it in him. He has proven over and over to be…well..let’s just say, not the sharpest tool in the shed. He violated multiple Giants team rules, had more than one traffic incident that was simply puzzling, and after shooting himself he dragged his teammate into the offense by convincing him to lie under oath about the brilliant self inflicted wound incident.

I would say the three most successful teams of the past 5 years are the Colts, Patriots, and Steelers. Two teams of which would never put up with this kind of garbage, and one that let him walk away from them, only to win 2 Superbowls without him.

I think the precedent this would set would be Bengalesque, if you will. Do I need to say more than that? So, after weighing what Chicago would get, with what they would have to put up with, I think the answer is clear. No Plax, we don’t want you. Go ruin somebody else’s chances…how about Dallas maybe? They could use a new Pacman.

-Bearsaddict
Da Bear Cast - Chicago Bears Podcast

The Bears recently acquired TE Michael Gains after the Lions released him. They aren’t paying too much for him, I believe a total of 1.162mil after all is said and done. However, I don’t understand this pickup.

The Bears already have Clark and Olsen, two very good tight ends, and one incredible athlete to try and develop in Kellen Davis. Davis didn’t perform well as a blocker as the Bears were hoping last year, but it doesn’t seem like signing another player at the position will help Davis’ development because he will see a lot less playing time.

Another problem with bringing a guy like Gaines in is that he is primarily a blocking TE. We know it, and other teams know it. So when Gaines comes in on 3rd and 1, everyone knows whats coming. Ron Turner hasn’t really shown me the kind of creativity I would like to see to trust that he will throw on 3rd and short to catch a team off-guard. That is possibly a result of not having the caliber QB that we now have, but I need to see it first.

The Bears didn’t pay too much for Gaines, but in my estimation, what they did pay for him wasn’t worth it. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

There are lots of Bears fans out there who want Torry Holt…bad. I happen to be one of them. Torry Holt would be huge for this Bears team. However, I would like to bring up something that most Bears fans might not have thought about when it comes to the conceivable acquisition of Holt.

It seems to me that everyone and their mom that is a Bears fan wants to fire Bob Babich. I really don’t know if I could agree or disagree with that sentiment. I can, however, suggest another change that I don’t understand why it hasn’t already happened. That is on offense. The offense that the Bears currently run is just that, offensive. It is offensive to watch at times.

So after three grueling weeks of watching the Bears win, and other teams hold a knife to our throats and threaten to cut us out of the playoffs, we are still in. We could not have had a better week last week. Everything, and I mean everything, went our way. Which is ironic, because the week before, almost everything went against us aside from us beating the Saints.

I started to write this post in the theme of the song, you know “On the first day of Christmas…” but that was way too cheesy and dumb. So here it is in simple numerical form.

Ok, in the previous post we broke down the Bears playoff situation and it wasn’t too great. Well, last week, it got even worse. We will break it down again.

Essentially the only chance the Bears have of getting into the playoffs is if they win both remaining games, and the Vikings lose both remaining games.

These are pretty crazy so I will try to make them as simple as possible. Here are the criteria for tiebreakers if they end up with the same record as teams they are battling against for a playoff spot:
TIEBREAKERS
1. Head-to-head
2. Best winning percentage in conference games
3. Best winning percentage in common games (minimum four)
4. Strength of victory

Sunday’s Bears game was one of the worst Bears Packers games in recent history. For Bears fans that is. I guess we know how they felt last year when we demolished them late in the year at Soldier field.

The Bears DO have a chance to get their D back on track, and lift their confidence for a second half of the season run though. They play the Rams, the Vikes, and the Jags over the next 3 weeks.

Let’s hope they can rebound and forget this one.