At least Jay Cutler didn't hit somebody

If Jay Cutler had demanded that Jerry Angelo trade him at halftime, I wouldn't have blamed him.

This is a guy who for weeks has heard relentless criticism about his team's offense. Its offense. People are unhappy with his interceptions. Commentators are comparing his stats, in a bad light, to not only Kyle Orton in Denver but to Orton this time last year with the Bears. And Cutler is keeping his cool, for the most part.

At Least Tommie Harris hit somebody

The Bears and in particular, the defense, had another embarrassing week in the 41-21 home defeat to the Arizona Cardinals. Bears fans really shouldn't be surprised when they look at the cast of characters that the Bears trot out on defense every week.

Meet Your 2009 NFL Rushing Leader

Yes, it is opposite year in the NFL. Up is down, Farvellous is wearing purple and gold, teams are wearing throwback jerseys that in no way resemble their actual uniforms, the Lions won a game, there are not one, but two starting Hispanic quarterbacks (Romo y Sanchez), the Chiefs have the state of Texas on their throwback helmets in a game against the Cowboys, Tom Brady is bad, and Cedric "I'm on a Boat" Benson is good.

JC Has Arrived

The Bears beat the 'glow in the dark' Seahawks 25-19 in a close game where the Bears fell behind early 13-0 and came back to win in a game that came down to the final play. Here are a few thoughts.

Jay C is the player we hoped he was

The Bears passing attack is completely revamped from a year ago. The receivers Bennett, Knox, and Hester all look like elite players, and Olsen and Forte are great complements. The passing game is clicking on all cylinders. The receivers are making JC look good and JC is making the receivers look good. I have been down on Hester in the past, but this season he has caught everything thrown his way and become a dynamic playmaker on offense. You have to think that this is just the beginning. As time goes on this group is only going to get better.

Lovie Smith lives in a dream world

After the game Lovie stated that "There's nothing wrong with the pass. I'd like to be known as a running team that can pass the ball." It is difficult to understand what the hell Lovie is thinking here. Or what game he is watching. During the game I felt like the Bears were running the football just so Seattle could keep it close. The Bears passed the ball 27 times for 247 yards, and ran the ball 28 times for 85 yards. I am not a football coach but I can do simple math (with a calculator). That's over 9 yards a passing play and just over 3 yards per running play.

After Seattle kick a field goal to bring the game to 17-16 and the Bears clinging to a one point lead to start the forth quarter. Ron Turner in his infinite wisdom thought it would be a good time play conservative and bring in third-string running back Garrett Wolfe in for three straight running plays. In a critical juncture the Bears went with Wolfe. Indefensibly wrong.

The Bears are great at field goal defense

For the second straight week the Bears benefited from the incompetence of the opposing teams kicker. Mare missed 2 of his 5 field goal trys and essentially lost the game for Seattle. If I was a Seattle fan I would be really mad, not only at Mare, but at the offense for attempting 5 field goals and only scoring one touchdown. It was like the the Bears had Gandolf standing at the 25 yard line yelling "You Shall Not Pass!!!" It was the perfect example of the 'bend but don't break defense'.

TJ Houshamshabbadoos' idiocy was overshadowed at Cincy by Ochochinco

I did not realize how dumb this guy is. TJ was apperently upset that the Bears did not try to sign him in the offseason so he decided to run his mouth.

"Man, the Bears ain't holler at me," the ex-Bengal said. "Jerry Angelo probably didn't even think I could play. So I'm going to show him Sunday." Clearly TJ has no grasp of the English language.

"I feel like I'm going to get open every play, every time," he said. "But that's not going to be the case. Those guys get paid [well too]." "I feel I'm going to win regardless, but I have to be realistic. I feel I'm going to win 95 percent of the time and they can get the other 5."

TJ showcased his talent with 4 catches for 35 yards and a fumble. After the game he was asked if Briggs & Co. got the best of him. "Of course he did because they won. But I was open all game. They just didn't throw me the ball." Sure, blame the quarterback. Nice ponytail.

NFL Week 1 Thoughts

Kyle Orton is Beardless and Lucky

Orton, sans beard, managed to pick up a win on Sunday using the same guile, grit, and dumb luck that allowed him to post a 10-5 record as a rookie for the Bears despite never throwing an accurate pass for over 10 yards. Kyle got the game winning touchdown pass throwing into triple coverage, having the ball tipped up, and falling into the hands of Brandon Stokley for a 87 yard touchdown. After the game Kyle said that he would rather be drunk than good - I mean rather be lucky than good, my mistake. The win improves Orton's career record as a starter to 22-12. I am not going to post the career record of a certain Jay C. Not gonna do it. It wouldn't be fair. 17-21.

Frequent Mistake Jake

Jake Delhomme is, well, exactly who we thought he was. Against the Eagles on Sunday, Jake completed 7 passes to his teammates, and 4 to the Eagles secondary. He also fumbled once. In Delhomo's last start in the playoffs against Arizona he threw 5 picks and fumbled once. So in his last two starts he has 11 turnovers. It makes me feel better to see him fail, I never really got over the 2005 playoff game against the Bears where he ran around yelling like an idiot.

Farve can successfully hand the ball off

Farvellous managed to get his first win despite only throwing for 110 yards. Are you telling me Tavaris Jackson couldn't stand back there and hand the ball of to A-Pete all game and throw for 110 yards? It makes me sick watching Farve celebrate with his teammates pretending like he's a great teammate. He even came out with a Sears commercial kind of poking fun at himself. You may have everyone else fooled Brett, but I'm on to you.

Brian Urlacher now has more free time to make poor personal decisions.

I wonder if Paris Hilton is free these days. The Bears just need to get Hunter Hillenmeyer a #54 jersey, a haircut, and a barbwire tattoo. That and a lot of skill and athleticism and no one would notice the difference.

Lambeau lamentations

The Bears lost a heartbreaker after failing to find the end zone with 1st-and-10 under 5:00 in the 4th quarter. A field goal gave the Bears a shaky 15-13 lead, putting the pressure on their captain-less defense to keep the Packers out of field goal range. They did, but at the expense of a 50-yard TD toss to Greg Jennings on 3rd-and-1. Still, with over a minute to go, the Bears had time for a scoring drive, I thought. I reasoned this was preferable to Mason Crosby lining up a 20-yard field goal chip with 0:04 on the clock, ending the game without a rebuttal from Jay Cutler. So the Bears got the ball back. And Cutler threw his fourth pick of the game.

Some thoughts:

Earl Bennett and Cutler are friends. Bennett, with seven receptions, is clearly Cutler's favorite target, even when he has three or four guys around him. Why is this? Hester, with four catches and a TD, may have had one of the best games I've seen from him at receiver. (Granted, it's often hard to watch a receiver's routes when the camera doesn't point to him, so I don't know how open Hester was throughout the game. I do know, however, there were certainly times when Bennett was not.) Media-proclaimed preseason favorite target Greg Olsen finished with one catch. Desmond Clark had one also, plus a should-have-caught-it in the end zone. Last year's leading receiver, Matt Forte, had zero catches.

Forte can't hit holes that aren't there. Openings at the line of scrimmage were rare. Forte managed only 55 yards on 25 carries, which were more touches than it looked like live. It's hard to say how much of this was the offensive line's ineptitude. You have to give credit to the Packers' front seven or eight. The 3-4 and blitz packages really messed with the Kreutz's line (and Culter's mind). It seemed Forte was met in the backfield on more than half his carries. This doesn't bode well if you want him to gain positive yards. Forte's inability to pound home a potential touchdown late in the fourth was the nail in the coffin before the other nail in the coffin.

Injuries hurt the team. No Charles Tillman and no Zachary Bowman means one-time Pro Bowler (and Cory Bradford Regressive Syndrome candidate) Nathan Vasher lines up across from Greg Jennings on a crucial 3rd-and-1 late in the fourth quarter. Isolation is not Vasher's forte. Jennings would have been two strides ahead even if Vasher didn't trip on the sod.

Brian Urlacher is important after all. I spent the offseason saying some pretty unkind things about Urlacher (in speech, not hypertext), but his presence is admittedly crucial and the prospect of him missing the rest of the year is terrifying. His absence in the 2nd half was apparent. Ryan Grant found much more room to run up the middle. I hear Lovie wants Derrick Brooks to join the team. Maybe Brooks still has Trent Dilfer's number in his phone.

Long snappers shouldn't be talked about so much. Patrick Mannelly's quick-snap audible was one of the most bizarre plays I've seen this season. I have to assume, like Collinsworth concluded, Mannelly went rogue when he thought he saw rookie Clay Matthews still on the field. My question: does it take any less time to snap the ball to Garrett Wolfe than it does to snap it back to Brad Maynard? The play starts at the snap, not the catch, right? So if you really think you see what you see, why not just snap with the original play in mind and get a punt off instead of making Wolfe try to break is single-carry rushing record on 4th-and-11 if your wrong? Maybe Maynard was paying less attention than Wolfe was.

Welcome back Wally. It's great to see Adewale Ogunleye pressuring the quarterback again. He sacked Aaron Rodgers twice in the first half. Maybe Rod Marinelli is on to something. Or maybe we should make this the last year of the contracts for Alex Brown and Mark Anderson, too.

When did we hire Gary Crowton back? We must have run the wideout screen (and non-screen) at least eight times. The thing is, when Cutler threw it on the number, rather than above the receiver's head, we got some yardage out of it.

Great Googly Moogly!

The Bears went ahead and made their first miscue of the 2009 season when they placed the big C five yards off. How high do you have to be to screw that up? It goes in the middle of the field.

Maybe they were making Devin Hester earn his salary doing non-football related activities. As Terrelle Pryor would say, no one's perfect. Some people kill people, some people are grossly inept at their jobs.

The situation is reminiscent of the classic Snickers commercial, where the groundskeeper misspells Chiefs. One of the best commercials of all time.