Leinart is 5 for 5 in first drive against Bears for 1st qtr TD!

[vickitulsa]

Inexplicable behavior by Bears out of the gate and then AZ Cardinals at their new home stadium on Monday Night Football extravaganza baffles beloved Bear bobbleheads ... Cards fans losing minds as hearts leap out of chests!

Who knows how the rest of the game will go, but man, THAT was an EXCITING drive!

Didn't help da Bears that Grossman overthrew his receiver with a surprise long toss on the first play of the game. Bears then go three-and-out, and Matt took it from there for the AZ TD drive. Famous Bears D ("Monsters of the Midway") had not even been scored on once in the first half of any game yet this season!

Some amazing stuff goin' down in AZ tonight fer sure.

:)


:applause: :party: :applause:

Hang onta yer hats folks, this could be a reeelly GOOD one!

[Ravenseye]

1. Famous Bears D

Strength of schedule is meaningless in the NFL, unless you talk about who has the better D or O, things like that. I'll never understand why the national sports writers are so idiotic when it comes to the NFL. They get so swept up in 'conventional wisdom' they forget context.

Who have the bears dominated? Green Bay (1-4), Detroit (1-5), Minnesota (3-2 but not against strong opponents either), overrated Seattle without Alexander or a WR and a struggling QB, and Buffalo...nuff said.

Hey, i'm not saying the suck, i'm just saying that you have to look at context, and it's tempting sometimes to look at a team hot out of the gate and make statements without thinking about what they've done. Chicago will have their bye week, and come back with two dominating wins (against San Fran and Miami) and people will start talking about how wonderfull they area again. If they beat New England and St. Louis later on in the season I'll give them their due respect, but they haven't proven anything to me yet.

[nolabels]

3. Their schedule looks very easy from here till playoffs

It might be possible for them to go undefeated but with a game like against the Cardinals just about anything looks possible.

That was an impossible game just to even watch, what the hell was that anyway :crazy:

[vickitulsa]

4. Well, the Bears D is still "famous" -- but the question is,

as you implied, do they deserve it?

I'm still not sure, but I pretty much agree with your analysis -- especially about the sportswriters. Sportscasters have me even more pissed lately, though, and last night I had to MUTE THE SOUND on that game by midway through the second quarter because of that idiot Tony Bigmouth Littlebrain Whoever doing the "expert commentary." I've NEVER had to mute the sound for almost an entire game like that!

But in the end, no matter how you package or analyze it, that was surely the most ... RIDICULOUS game I think I've ever watched.

Lotsa people scratching their heads after that one.

One thing that I keep coming back to, watching this morning's analyses and replays of clips. Is there ANY RB or other ball carrier that could possibly hold onto the ball when a couple of defenders like Urlacher and whoever can reach in with such powerful arms to strip the ball from said carrier?

Sometimes I think there oughta be a new rule about just how "legal" it should be to allow ball-stripping like that, particularly after forward progress is halted. I recognize the complicated nature of such an issue, but still, I'm just sayin'....

No excuses for James, though, not after his night. Overall, I'm getting more than a little sick of individual "star" players throwing hissyfits because they aren't "given the ball enough" and other such whiny-assed complaints. :puke:

Buncha belly-achin' primadonnas, if ya ask me. (And I know no one asked me! :))

Da Bears have been my brother's team for as long as I can remember, through thick and thin. After that punt return for a TD that made it look like Chicago was gonna pull their fat outta the fire in the last quarter after all, I called Steve to see if he was still watching, figuring he'd gotten disgusted and turned off the teevee by then (if he hadn't smashed it).

Turned out he hadn't, but he was NOT pleased with the Bears last night. Didn't even celebrate the win! Said what that game proved was that their offense wasn't what it's been touted to be lately (as he's been saying all along), that the D had shortcomings no one wants to admit, and the game just showed all other teams that the Bears could be gotten to and even run over by an inspired opponent.

Not a pretty game for either team ... in fact, one of the ugliest games I've ever seen -- especially for one that had a lot of outstanding plays.

I don't often predict what will happen to teams by season's end because it's a habit frought with many uncertainties we cannot imagine at any given point, particularly early in a season.

But I think the Bears are likely to do a repeat of last year, where they make the playoffs but don't go far from there.


Oh, and Matt Leinart, at least, proved something on that field -- something people will remember. :)

[genie_weenie]

5. Ooooh Matt Leinart Oooooh Matt Leinart

I'm Matt Leinart. I've run up in Paris Hilton.

I'm so handsomely scruffy with my 1 day growth of beard.

Ooooooh I played at USC oooooh Women Swoon over me.

Matt Leinart can eat it. HE HASN'T EVEN WON A SINGLE REGULAR SEASON GAME YET.

He is not the next Tom Brady.
He is not the next Joe Montana.
Hell, he is not even the next Carson Palmer.
For all we know he could be the next Heath Shuler.

I'm going to wait until the guy wins.

And I love how the Bears winning the game is somehow bad? :shrug: If the '85 Bears had made a miracle win over the Dolphins 20 years ago to go undefeated would that have de-legitimatized the win.

Facts: Bears win. Winning is better than losing even if you win ugly. Ask the Steelers of 2005 who paid the refs to get the SuperBowl win.

[BOSSHOG]

8. Being the next Heath Shuler wouldn't be bad since Heath

will be a democratic member of Congress from North Carolina in a few weeks.

http://www.heathshuler.com/

[vickitulsa]

10. VERY interesting!

I checked out his website and also read a couple of articles about that race, one in Time that was recent and one in USAToday that was dated soon after Shuler announced his candidacy. Looks like the campaigns have gotten pretty nasty, as is too often the way of it these days. But the prospects for Shuler look very good indeed!

He is obviously a conservative sort of Democrat, but at least his family history has all been Dem, and living where he does it seems he would not stand much chance of being elected if he weren't somewhat conservative in some of his views.

He definitely appears to be a WAY better choice than his opponent! What a criminal scumbag the Repuke candidate is! He looks like precisely the sort of corrupt Republican we've come to expect to see -- one with a long history of it and many lies to cover up his acts.

That Russian banking connection Taylor has -- man, that's seriously bad stuff, I've just been learning about the Russian banking involvement in international crime and official corruption. Scary indeed.

Go Heath! NC needs ya. :)

[nolabels]

9. I like the end of the season but some just can't except the results

The Bears were exposed and you can bet a lot of people will be reviewing and rewinding the tape on this one. That was no accident in the playoffs last year, the Bears were ambushed. Playing a weak division and schedule isn't always a benefit. The Cards choked and deserved what they got but there is good chance one or two along the way won't be choking.

Them non calls for holding(and take downs) by the Bears offensive line were interesting too

Bemoaning the the refs and then also embracing their bad officiation sounds kind of ignorant to me. Standing the guy up with four players why the fifths pulls the ball out isn't even football.

Oh yea, the five other titles Pittsburgh has were because of payoffs too :evilgrin:

[vickitulsa]

11. "Bemoaning the the refs and then also embracing

their bad officiation sounds kind of ignorant to me. Standing the guy up with four players why the fifths pulls the ball out isn't even football."

Exactly. On both counts.

Interesting how some folks don't seem to recognize their own ... uh, cognitive dissonance. (Didn't want to say hypocrisy, but if the shoe fits....)

Oh yea, the five other titles Pittsburgh has were because of payoffs too.

Right-O. Surely that's how it happened. :D

Except I think it's four other titles -- the last one was their fifth, correct? "For the thumb" was one of their battle cries pregame last season, though many players and fans had sense enough not to use that one, just because it sounds so dumb! :rofl:

[nolabels]

15. Yea, me no expert, thanks for the refresher on Super-bowl wins

It might of been result listening to my Steeler fan wife a little too much or my son the Packer fan :silly:

But as for myself I am still trying to learn how to count, but being a Raider fan in pain it's getting easier. It goes like, oh and one, oh and two, oh and three............. When they get to sixteen the team wins the lottery or was that the draft? No matter, I think it wins something :shrug:


Also after you have been Raider fan for awhile you get accustomed to all of the bad play calls, stupid refs and players or coaches no body else wanted but the consequences of it are at least you know all about them things when you see them.

[mduffy31]

2. Jesus Christ

Can the Cardinals find ways to lose games or what?

[Captain Hilts]

6. Leinart played well. That's a good sign. nt

[nickinSTL]

7. I didn't see the game...

I don't have cable/satellite, so no MNF this season...

However, it sounds to me like they had a bad game, at least early on. Same kind of thing happened against the Vikings, the tackling SUCKED for a large portion of the game.

I get why some are saying they've only beaten bad or overrated teams, so how good are they...but...even when they have a bad game (Vikings, Cardinals) they find a way to come back and WIN.

And that WIN is what's important.

[erpowers]

12. Proving Critics Wrong

It seems that Leinart is proving some of his critics wrong and showing some of the teams that passed on the chance to draft him that they made the wrong decision.

[kanrok]

13. Leinart is going to be a great QB

He was impressive against the Bears. The Cards gameplan on offense and defense was pretty good. The Bears play a cover-2. The way to attack that is to throw underneath the coverage and into the gaps in concert with three-step drops. It requires the QB to read the defense adequately and make the right call. The Bears defense had a difficult time making tackles early, but after the first two TD's, they held the scoring to field goals. This is due to a combination of things. One, the Bears defense is for real. They are the best in the league. But it is also due to the Cards O-line being horrible at run-blocking. James had absolutely no holes to run through. The Cards will be a force to be recoked with in a couple of years. As for the Bears offense, Grossman had a bad game. He was throwing into coverage (which he does even when he has a good game) and was not particularly accurate, even when he did connect. The first pass he made, he overshot Berrian, who beat the defense like a red-headed step-child. Had Grossman connected there it would have been a much different game. As it was, the Bears found a way to win.

[vickitulsa]

14. "Winning is the only thing that matters."

"Winning is the only thing that matters."

I won't quote directly the three posters in this thread who expressed this sentiment, but I think the way I paraphrased it above accurately states their position. I'm not interested in a flame war or irrational arguing.

When people say, in one form or another, that winning is the only thing that matters, they always do so with an air of finality, implying they have just spoken some sort of universal truth which cannot be denied. Their thinking seems to stop there. Nothing more needs to be said, they believe.

Even if they have done or said nothing to prove their point, they nonetheless seem to believe that it's an accepted fact or a universal principle that no one disputes. And if anyone does dispute it, then such people (they think) should just reject their own beliefs and accept their word on it, as if they were omniscient, or at least more brilliant than anyone they're speaking to, and therefore should be considered infallible.

Yes, infallible. Like the Pope. Or God. All-knowing, all-seeing, unable to make misjudgments or mistakes.

But wait, do they really expect us to believe that? Do they honestly think no one will argue the point with them or try to prove them wrong?

"Winning is the only thing that matters."

Let's examine that statement, in the context of sports and the broader context of life. Let's see what it is we do believe as a culture on this point.

Rather than writing many pages to illustrate my argument, I'll keep it shorter and simply employ the method of asking questions -- questions which should elicit the truth in the answers that come immediately to mind.

Does the history of sports bear out such a maxim as "Winning is the only thing that matters"? Do the fans of sporting games admire players on teams (or individuals for that matter) because they win -- and only for that?

Does "playing fair" not matter? Does having character not matter?

Is retaining one's self-respect not important? Does respecting one's opponents not figure into the game?

And how about obeying the game's set rules? Why do we have those rules in the first place? Why do they call certain actions by players "unsportsmanlike conduct" and penalize the participants who perform such actions, with the severity of the punishment being matched to the degree and flagrancy of the violation?

What is the source of the term "unsportsmanlike" and others like it, revealed in such comments as, "That's not very sporting of him," or "She's not a very good sport"?

Why don't we admire players who persist in repeated acts of unsportsmanlike behavior?

Why are they eventually barred from ever playing the game again with others who will obey the rules?

Why was Haynesworth penalized so heavily after stomping on the bare head of an opponent who was down on the turf? And why do fans and observers get angry when clearly unsportsmanlike infractions go uncalled by a referee or the perpetrator goes unpunished or punished far too lightly -- as in the now infamous brawl between two college teams last Saturday?

Is it more important that Miami win games for the rest of their season than that terrible displays of unacceptable behavior by some individual team members draw appropriate punishment and thereby set the standard for other players?


As I wrote this, the answers to all these questions that occurred to me more than sufficiently belied the accuracy of a statement like "Winning is the only thing that matters."

As a culture, we Americans have long believed in curtailing inhumane and unfair conduct -- even in warfighting, the most extreme and REAL "game" there is.

Now with an unscrupulous administration in power in our nation, inhumanity and "unsportsmanlike" conduct has been unleashed as national policy. The Republicans have demonstrated that they will do anything to win, and to this point they have succeeded in grabbing and holding power.

But the vast majority of Americans, even those who once supported the ones in power now, are finding they can no longer accept the unfair tactics, the disreputable, deceptive behavior, and the criminal practices of those who "reign" over us.

Americans have stomached all they could of such thuggery, and they are fed up with the cheaters' behavior -- and with them.

This is why I believe Americans will seek to replace these dishonorable ones -- the ones without true character -- with others who they feel would more accurately represent our basic values and beliefs.

Of course, if the "incumbents" lie again, cheat again, and retain their power by stealing it, then perhaps the maxim is proven, and "Winning is the only thing that matters."

I just happen to belief this isn't true. Or possibly it's only true of Republicans!