Dear Chicago: Welcome to 21st century football

I think we should set-up a site called www.firethetribsportsguys.com. If this were a weather forecast, we would want Skilling’s head! Here are some random observations from watching yesterday’s game: This Chicago Bears unit looks like the 2001 St. Louis Rams. [Editor’s Note: Calm down, Kaufmann. It’s game 2, dude.] Go down the roster and the key positions almost match up style-for-style: (Cutler/Warner, Forte/Faulk, Holt/Hester, Knox/Bruce, Little/Peppers, Fletcher/Urlacher etc). If we find out Cutler used to bag groceries? Scary. I had a huge light go off during this game - Lovie & Martz, Tice and Marinelli are working as a team. You get the sense that this coaching staff is a real ensemble, not just the traditional head coach-coordinator model. And that’s just fine with me. If Martz has the offense working, Lovie brings his signature defense.‚ That’s potent. And look! In-game adjustments! Hey Bears fans: Welcome to 21st century football.‚ You get the feeling that old Bears coaches didn’t make adjustments simply because they’d worked really hard the night before to draw up the plays. “Let’s just stay the course...I was up til like 2am color-coding these. And then laminating!!” Remember‚ the 85 Bears? They went into Dallas and drubbed the Cowboys. You know, when they battered Danny White? Remember when concussions were funny? If you watch highlights of dazed and confused quarterbacks from that season, it was usually accompanied by a tuba. So let’s put the theory to test: I believe that if NFL stars get concussions, the teams will not be as quick to ‘protect the player’ and put them on injured reserve, like the Bears did with linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer. It was obvious Dallas star player Jason Whitten had his bell rung. He was fighting to get back in the game, but will the Cowboys protect him and end his season? It’s not every day that you see a professional football unit be confused and yell at each other like the Bears 0-line did. So the worst guy on the O-line pulls the hammy and his backup is 10 times worse? Wow, I could have sworn O-line Coach Mike Tice did this job before, right? That was very amateur-hour. The coaches figured it out and caught a few Dallas blitzes, but still. This is the NFL. I never see offensive-line play border on pee-wee. They better fix that quick. This 2-0 start doesn’t have me thinking Super Bowl. But it does have me thinking that this team may actually be playing for something relevant in December.‚ And that is great for the economy.‚ I will spend more money on nachos, beer, hats, shirts, foam fingers, parking and friends. Bears football = Illinois stimulus package. The stellar play on the road may bring up a bigger point: Can the Bears be all they can be playing at Soldier Field? Wouldn’t this team be even better on turf? They sure looked good yesterday on the artificial stuff. The Bears’ should bring back that turf they had in the early 80’s. Just pull it out of the storage barn behind the Shedd... It’s the defense, stupid.‚ For everyone who wants Lovie Smith to get out of town (I’m looking at you Tribune/Sun-Times staffers), you have to recognize that this defense is exactly what Chicago fans want. They’ve had a ton of injuries and bad luck over the past few years, but I think this defense is the right scheme for a Chicago football team. They play so fast and continually pummel the ball carrier on every play.‚ And it really does take a toll on players. Both of the interceptions were from deflections (ie - receivers short-arming or getting clobbered) and the fumble was a good old-fashioned Tillman punch-out. I probably shouted 15-20 times because of big plays/hits during the 60+ defensive snaps yesterday. That’s a good shout to non-shout ratio. See, if you believed the newspapers (who even reads those these days?), Lovie would be run out of town and we would be looking at new coaches, which would inevitably include Wade Phillips, the current coach down in big D. That guy? I feel for you Texas football fans. That guy needs to go. He looks like Newt Gingrich. I know Texas can be conservative, but even conservatives don’t want Newt Gingrich running their football team. If you get a new coach, that scheme may be relaxed. Or they may go with a different emphasis, like a 3-4 coverage scheme.‚ That would be a shame. I’m a Lovie lover. Wait, I got to get over to the T-Shirt Deli. Dumbest commercial ever: Why does that Ford truck climb that fiery circular contraption? I will be kicking myself when I am in that situation with my Honda. “Ahahahahh, I should have bought a Ford truck!!!! How do I get out of this non-realistic fireball escalator stairwell to nowhere?‚ And runner up: The Dodge Charger commercial where George Washington runs over the red coats in a Dodge Charger? The tag-line: “This country is good at two things: Cars and freedom.” Oh yeah, the Vikings are 0-2. This 2-0 start sets up a big showdown for 1st place next week. This will be the mark of this squad. If they come to play (and win), we just might have football fever back in Chicago. Winners: Cutler, Forte, Hester, Knox, Lovie, Martz, Tillman, Urlacher, Briggs, Peppers and DJ Moore. Losers: Bears special teams, Schaffer, Chris Williams, Wade Phillips.