Em-Bear-Assessment: The Three Stooges
Hey Moe! Nuk, nuk, nuk.
By JohnRehor
You know things are bad when your choice of players is referred to as the Three Stooges.
Yet that is exactly what Rick Morissey of the Chicago Tribune did when discussing the Bears choices for who would play quarterback against the Packers this Sunday, when the Bears travel up to Lambeau Field to take on the Packers.
Since Jay Cutler went down with a thumb injury, the Bears have gone 0-4 with Caleb Hanie leading the Bears, falling to 7-7 and essentially out of the playoff race, although mathematically still alive. His QB rating of 41.8, along with 9 interceptions in the 4 game stretch, show that the almost two quarters the Packers saw of him in the NFC Championship game in January, might very be the high water mark of his NFL career.
Instead of giving Hanie another shot at redemption, the Bears announced today that they are instead going to start Josh McCown Sunday. He becomes the tenth starting quarterback in the Lovie Smith era in Chicago, and despite having attempted 8 (!) passes since 2007, apparently gives the Bears the best chance to win on Sunday.
And if McCown were to falter, they can turn to the newly benched Hanie to save the day, or rely on rookie Nathan Enderle, who has attempted a total of zero passes in his NFL career.
Three Stooges indeed.
The Bears are a total mess right now on the offensive side of the ball. They lost their best play maker in Matt Forte for possibly the rest of the year with a knee injury. They lost their best receiver in Johnny Knox, out for the year after suffering a horrible back injury. Devin Hester has been hampered with an ankle injury, limiting his explosiveness on both offense and especially in the return game. And to add fuel to the fire, they are starting a quarterback who has not thrown a pass in three years.
Morissey was wrong in calling the choice of quarterback the Three Stooges. The reality is that Jerry Angelo, Lovie Smith, and Mike Martz are the real Three Stooges in Chicago. Angelo qualifies for failing to have a quality backup quarterback on the roster in the event Cutler was lost. Martz is guilty for pushing to acquire him, based on the one year they spent together in Detroit. And Smith rounds out the group for not voicing his displeasure over the choices presented to him, at least not publicly.
What does this equal? A recipe for disaster.
The game Sunday sets up perfectly for the Packers. They will be hell bent on revenge after suffering their first loss in a year against the Chiefs, and who better to take it out on than their old rivals. While Chicago generally plays the Packers tough, I will be shocked if the Bears offense scores 10 points against the Packers defense. The Packers defense is prone to giving up huge chunks of yards while limiting their opponents from scoring. My guess is on Sunday, they limit both, and a blow out victory rolls the Packers way.
Three Stooges? Think Looney Toons is more appropriate for what is happening in Chicago right now.
Comments (6)
December 21, 2011 at 02:21 pm
Weren't we saying a lot of similar things like this right before the Chiefs game?
JohnRehor
December 21, 2011 at 02:23 pm
Things like what?
December 21, 2011 at 02:30 pm
How much disarray the team and organization was in, how they were starting a QB they just got and hadn't played for them yet and how all these things are conspiring to make it look like we should just walk all over them.
I am probably making too much of a correlation, but I just had that "we are playing another down and out team" thought and look what happened to us last time.
JohnRehor
December 21, 2011 at 02:33 pm
Orton had played this year though. Granted it was for the Broncos, but he had played. McCown hasnt played in the NFL in 3 years. And the Martz system is complicated. I cant believe hes mastered it in a little over a month.
I understand the correlation, just think the biggest difference is the QB in question.
December 21, 2011 at 02:40 pm
Yep, that makes sense.
December 23, 2011 at 02:34 pm
I think the biggest difference is that the Chiefs had almost all their injuries at the beginning of the year - with the notable exception being Cassell 3 or 4 wks ago.
The Bears have been crushed (as have the Packers) in the past 4 weeks by injuries. That's the real story here. Only a choke of even more epic proportions by GB would snatch CHI away from the jaws of another loss.
Going forward though - if GB doesn't get healthy by the 2nd rd of the playoffs I doubt they beat SF, NO, NE, BAL or PIT if BigBen is healthy.