In football, a 24-point win should feel great. But the vibe in the Chicago Bears locker room and post-game press conference was just short of “relieved.” Despite Chicago’s own struggles in last week’s 35-point loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the laughable 1-6 Cleveland Browns were no challenge. But there can’t be much satisfaction in a win against the 32nd ranked defense and 31st ranked offense in the NFL—especially when the underwhelming Bears started out with a trio of field goals.

Jay Cutler didn’t make excuses to the media. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We have to improve in every respect offensively possible,” he said. Cutler’s candor in today’s press conference actually warmed me up to the guy who’d gotten such a bad rap for being arrogant.

Cutler was sacked four times Sunday. Kamerion Wimbley hit Cutler so hard with a helmet-to-helmet block that Cutler spent much of the game wrapping gauze around his bloody tongue. The Bear’s QB ran five times for 32 yards and his own first downs, because his receivers couldn’t get open. That situation is setting him up to take even more blows. So naturally the media kept asking “How does it feel to get hit so much?” After a pause, Cutler responded, “I don’t know about that, I guess I’ll have to see the tapes.”

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I really thought that last week’s loss to Atlanta was about the worst I’d see the Bears play this season. Little did I know that the Cincinnati Bengals had more devastation planned for the Bears this past weekend, as they rolled over each and every Bear for a 45-10 victory. The common response from players when asked about the loss was “embarrassing.” The historically defensive machine gave up the most points in one game that is has in ten years. And to pour salt on the wounds, former first round Bears draft pick Cedric Benson rushed for a career high of 189 yards, catapulting him to the top of the entire NFL in rushing yards…too bad for the Bears that it was in black and orange, rather than navy and orange.
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Sunday night’s loss to Atlanta was about the worst Bears football that I’ve seen in three years. Instead of a bye-week-re-energized team taking the field, the Bears imploded. Penalties, penalties, penalties and turnovers killed the Bears. The Bears did far more damage to themselves than anyone in a Falcons’ jersey.

Cutler’s arm seems to have beguiled Ron Turner into abandoning the run. However, the picks are coming all too frequently (Cutler’s had seven in five games) as a result of the overzealous passing. And unfortunately, Matt Forte seems to be in some kind of sophomore slump: forgetting to pick up his feet, making little headway on rushing, stepping on his own feet. The Bears are ranked 15th of the 16 teams in the NFC in rushing. Perhaps it’s not so much that Turner has forgotten the run, but that he has lost some faith in the Bears’ ability to execute it. Forte’s back-to-back fumbles in the third period cost the Bears a shot at a touchdown and didn’t help the case for the rungame. And to further complicate things, the offensive line is offering little to no help in opening holes for Forte. Whether it be a running back problem, a line problem or a problem calling from the booth remains to be seen.

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As a five-year vet of the Windy City Rollers, Chicago’s premier women’s roller-derby league (ranked #2 nationally), I thought I’d drop in on Tuesday night’s screening of roller-derby-themed flick Whip It, along with a few of my teammates, to get some perspective from the girls who live and skate the life.

The film is Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, as well as the first commercial film to center on the sport since its resurgence, which began in Austin in 2003. As all of us are fiercely devoted to fostering its continued growth and recognition as a professionally played, full-contact women’s sport, I knew my teammates would embrace the exposure, but also be critical, and brutally honest, if it didn’t do our institution justice.

The consensus of my teammates is that Barrymore got one thing right, at least: the element of camaraderie that is intrinsic to modern women’s roller derby.

The rookie perspective:
Payne D. Spencer: “What they got right was the excitement of roller derby and how it makes you feel the first time you strap on skates. As a rookie, right now, waiting for the first time out on the track, it’s very exciting to see how she’s (Ellen Page’s character) feeling. All of us have felt that at some point, and the reasoning behind putting on your skates is finding the one thing that feels right for you and going with it. I definitely think Page’s character, when she started with her roller-derby career, was spot on.”

Zombea Arthur: “Derby is more of a family. I think there are are less rivalries off the track.”

Veteran impressions:
Ruthenasia: “They got right the relationships that you build and how it translates back to your real life, if you wanna call it your real life. It becomes your real life, but there are skills and lessons you learn in derby that translate right back to everything else.”

Donna Party: “I think they got the heart of it right. It’s something we all sacrifice our “regular” lives to go and do. We all understand that it’s a momentary thing and if we don’t do it right now, we’ll probably never do it.”

While we all realize the limitations of a 111-minute Hollywood package, the one thing many of us wished was emphasized more was the grueling workouts the sport actually requires. Ellen Page’s character Bliss finds an old pair of skates, rolls them out for a few days, tries out and makes the team in a relatively short amount of time. The reality is that nationally competitive teams like the Windy City Rollers demand far more time and training, upwards of three 2-hour practices per week, and often 4-5. Girls often have to wait months before getting on a publicly bouting team, while they learn how to fall safely, take hits, gain endurance, etc. There are no short roads to the top. It’s all hard work.

What did Whip It leave out?
Ruthenasia: “Well, it was hard to say because it came from the perspective of a high-schooler. They hinted at people with real lives and real jobs like Maggie Mayhem with her child, and having to balance (derby, work, family) all out. But maybe some of that aspect was left out.”

Malice With Chains: “They left out how competitive it can be and how it isn’t always aggressively competitive, it’s more mentally competitive, too.”

Zoe Trocious: “A lot of young girls will be interested in checking out what roller derby really is. I hope they stick around when they realize that it is a very athletic and difficult sport. I hope that it brings in a lot more fans as well.”

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It’s been decades since the Bears have been able to put up a W after a game at Qwest Field: since 1976 to be exact. Though early on it looked as though they might continue that streak, a defensive rally in the second half, a banged up Seahawks starting lineup, and a quarterback in Jay Cutler, who is cocky enough, or maybe competitive enough, to fight under fire, brought the Bears a 25-19 win.

This may be the game that endears Cutler to a quarterback-shy Chicago. After a rocky, pick-filled season opener at Lambeau, it would take more than last week’s win against Pittsburgh to set Bears fans at ease. The masterfully executed final drive of the game proves to Chicago fans that Cutler can take his lumps and perform in a pinch. He may get lippy with refs, and may have an arrogant reputation, but what comes with that competitive bravado is the pride to pull out a win. Cutler has the confidence to pull off the two-point conversion, and guts enough to run the ball and chew up the clock to avoid scoring too early at the end of a game. Chicago’s not used to that assuredness. Last year, the Bears had to treat completed passes as a happy accident. The last five minutes of Sunday’s game gave Chicago fans one thing they haven’t had in a quarterback in over 20 years: trust.

The other great things to come out of this game: Read more »

After months in the honeymoon phase with the Bears’ off-season trade, golden child quarterback Jay Cutler, Chicago fans were slapped with a hefty dose of reality via a 15-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers. The immediate reaction of fans could be to blame Cutler and lump him with the 23 other hacks Chicago has had at quarterback since Jim McMahon. But the blame lies primarily in a lingering problem in the wide-receiving core that the Bears have unsuccessfully addressed over the last two years. Cutler’s a good quarterback. He’s a great quarterback. He just doesn’t have anyone reliable to whom to throw.

Chicago fans have been force-fed the rhetoric that good buddies Cutler and tight end Greg Olsen had an on- and off-field chemistry that would translate to huge offense in ‘09. But Cutler’s bromeo Olsen dropped an on-target pass, which easily could have been a first down at the end of the first quarter. After that, Olsen didn’t see any action until the end of the fourth.

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The most prominent news at Chicago Bears training camp, down in muggy Bourbonnais, is that there isn’t too much news.  That bodes well for this team that is poised to have great success in 2009.  Last year’s camp was awash with tabloid worthy gossip: is Rex our quarterback?  How long will Devin Hester hold out for the pay raise?  Did management waste a first-round draft pick in Chris Williams, who came into camp on the injured list?  Who’s the left tackle?

The “newsworthy” tidbits of last year’s training camp seemed to detract from what really needed to get done: work.  The team just needed to tighten up on plays, on conditioning, on building a consistent offense.  In retrospect, perhaps too much time was spent addressing the juicy tidbits.

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Jerry, Jerry, he’s our man! Bears fans in Chicago never expected to utter those five words, especially not in the last few years of heartbreaking football. First-round pick busts, “Rex is our quarterback” mantras and mistake after mistake in coaching and lineup decisions led to almost-but-just-not-quite season after season under General Manager Jerry Angelo. But with yesterday’s historic signing of 25-year-old former Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler, Angelo proved that you can teach an old dog new tricks. This uncharacteristically savvy and bold move from the oft-criticized Angelo, along with the procurement of tackle Orlando Pace, suddenly sets up the Bears with something they have not boasted in decades: a threatening offense! The implications of having Cutler’s skills in the mix are enormous. Suddenly, defenses cannot stuff the box on the Bears. Gun-slinging Cutler threw for 4,526 yards last year, third in the league. Cutler’s threat downfield is going to open up lanes for running back Matt Forte, as well. Forte has already made a mark, rushing 1,238 yards in his rookie year with little help from a virtually nonexistent offensive line. Read more »

With Sunday’s 31-24 to loss to the Houston Texans, the Bears wrote themselves out of athe post-season. In spite of buckets of good luck and second chances falling in their laps, the Bears could not secure this last, most critical game of the season.

I could talk about the two unforgivable missed catches by Marty Booker. I could expound on the missed tackles in the secondary in Mike Brown’s absence. I could harp on Kyle Orton’s inability to complete a pass beyond 20 yards. But rather than belabor the shortcomings of this game, let’s talk about the bad taste that this season’s mediocre performance left in the mouths of every frustrated Chicago fan, and the problems that begin at the coaching level.

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Watching Matt Forte single-handedly reclaim Monday night’s must-win game against the Green Bay Packers almost made me forget, just for a moment, the trash football the rest of the offense played for the first three-quarters of the game. Forte’s explosive play-making is mesmerizing in a way that can distract, if even temporarily, from the offensive ineptitude that chronically plagues this defensive minded Bears football team.

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