Remember during the fourth quarter of the Bears’ win Sunday when Jay Cutler was walking off the field shortly before Robbie Gould’s winning field goal? Of course you do! And remember how the ref accidentally knocked his helmet off? You guys are so smart!

Well here it is, in all its animated GIF glory:

LOLROFLOMG, am I right? By the way, Cutler’s trademark look is wearing his helmet just like that: chinstrap on the top of his forehead, letting it loosely hang out the back. It’s like Mr. Peanut’s monocle or Michael Jackson’s glove.

HT: Sharebros

Greg Olsen meet Tyrone Carter:

After this happened in the second quarter, Olsen was slow to get up, and it looked as if he might be done for the afternoon. But no, G-reg does not go out like that.

In fact, he made two important, heads-up plays in the second half:

1) His 29-yard catch over the middle in the fourth quarter, in which he had the wherewithal to hang onto the ball after another punishing Carter hit. Tough, gutsy play. A few plays later, Jay Cutler found Johnny Knox for a TD.

2) His fumble recovery on the Bears’ winning drive, after James Harrison knocked the ball loose from Matt Forte. This game could have had a different outcome had Olsen not recognized Forte had been stripped and immediately jumped on the ball. Huge, smart play.

His performance was yet another reason why the Bears were able to pull it out against the Steelers yesterday.

Thoughts on the Bears’ victory yesterday at Soldier Field.

The Jay Cutler reversal.

After a horrid first game behind center, Cutler and his receivers must have spent the week at a couples retreat, because communication problems were non-existent in yesterday’s win against the Steelers. Cutler finished the game 27-for-38 for 236 yards and two touchdowns. His first TD pass to Kellen Davis was a bullet, one Kyle Orton never makes. There were key third-down conversions Cutler made during crunch time in the second half where I found myself, for the first time in a long time as a Bears fan, actually feeling confident, confident that Cutler was going to make the right read and get the Bears a first down to keep the chains moving.

Refreshing, ain’t it?

Who is Johnny Knox?

After two games, he’s the Bears best receiver — a rookie and fifth-round selection out of Division II Abilene Christian. (It’s also fun to call him Johnny Knoxville.) Yesterday, he caught an important 7-yard TD catch in the fourth, and finished with six catches for 70 yards. We know he’s fast. We know he can make plays. But can he develop into a legit receiver, one the Bears still haven’t quite found?

Let’s hope.

Because if Knox keeps this up, and Earl Bennett and Devin Hester continue to mature at the position, the Bears might actually have a respectable receiving corps.

Keep reading →

… it should not be time to panic. They will have lost to a very good Green Bay team on the road, and the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers at home. Starting off 0-2 is rough, but do remember the Bears have the easiest schedule in the league this year. Better times are ahead.

All the hysteria that’s going to be in the papers Monday morning after the Bears start off 0-2 is going to be just that: hysteria. Or is it?

Consider this stat: Only 13.8 percent of 0-2 teams have made the playoffs since 1990. Those are not good odds. At all.

I hate the term “must win,” and I still think the Bears can recover from an 0-2 start and get in the NFC playoff discussion as the year progresses. But as far as numbers are concerned, the Bears desperately need a win if they want to stay on the right side of the playoff odds.

Yet even with a loss, it’s not much of a stretch to say the Bears likely have the schedule and talent to sneak into that 13.8 percent. They’ll certainly have a better shot than most other teams that start out 0-2 this season. But if that turns out not to be the case, and you throw in Brian Urlacher’s injury, it’s almost as if this season has ended before it began.

Anyone reading this blog probably doesn’t need to be informed, but just in case, KSK’s running Ben Roethlisberger character is a big dumb child. Ben is fearful and easy to please: He likes Choco Tacos, playing Call of Duty on his Xbox, and getting advice from an otherwordly Hines Ward. He speaks in all caps and is fascinated by simple things. Little did I know this is exactly how Ben Roethlisberger is in real life.

Yesterday, in the midst of the all-day NFL excitement — yesterday was great, wasn’t it? — I was reading through the NFL preview issue of Sports Illustrated. The big feature this year is a quarterback roundtable organized by Peter King. The participants include Carson Palmer, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo, and Roethlisberger. After Roethlisberger gets done reiterating he calls about 40 percent of his team’s plays (which may or may not be true, but the way he insists practically screams, “I’m a big boy too!”) King eventually closes with this question: “What’s the one job you’d like to have if you weren’t an NFL quarterback.” Roethlisberger answers first:

“A relief pitcher, like Mariano Rivera, coming in every once in a while making lots of money; or a fighter pilot, like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.”

Yes, it’s true. If Ben Roethlisberger didn’t play football, his other profession would be: fighter pilot. Like Tom Cruise. In “Top Gun.”

Remember when you were a kid, and you chose your future profession based on whatever movie you’d seen that week? Ben Roethlisberger is 27 years old.

Bad news for Troy Polamalu: he’s out three-six weeks with a MCL sprain.

Good news for Troy Polamalu: once he gets back, he’ll hopefully be able to still make ridiculous interceptions such as these:

Extension!

The Steelers won 13-10 in overtime, if you’re into “results” and “scores.”

Earlier this week, Arizona Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt decided it would be nice to cancel his team’s practice and take them to the movies instead. This apparently inspired Steelers kicker Jeff Reed to pull a prank on his team. With the approval of head coach Mike Tomlin, he arranged for buses to pull up to the training facility under the ruse that the team was going to the movie theater. The prank was that … they weren’t actually going to the movies and that practice would commence as scheduled. That’s not even a prank, that’s just being a jerk. This, I imagine, is how it went down.

THE STEELERS are at their practice facility.

JEFF REED. Coach! Coach, I have an awesome idea for a prank.
MIKE TOMLIN. (looks up from clipboard) Uh. All right.
REED. Will you let me pull it off? It’s going to be great!
TOMLIN. Sure, whatever.

An hour later:

REED. Hey guys, look! Are those buses! What are those for?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER. No idea. Could you get off the field? We’re running some snaps.
REED. Well, I know what they’re for! We’re going to the movies!!!!
HINES WARD. Huh. Really?
ROETHLISBERGER. That’s thoughtful of them. I wanted to work on some things here, but I suppose I’m OK with taking some time off.
WARD. Yeah, cool. I’ll be sure and thank Coach. Nice thing to do, you know.
REED. pfffffft hahaha
WARD. What’s funny?
REED. PSYCH MOTHER****ERS YOU JUST GOT PRANKED!
ROETHLISBERGER. What?
REED. I TOLD YOU THAT WE WERE GOING TO THE MOVIES AND THEN SECONDS LATER REVEALED THAT WE ARE NOT ACTUALLY GOING TO THE MOVIES! HAHAHAHAHAAAA
WARD. All right, uh … that was, uh, pretty funny …
REED. Me and Coach Tomlin thought it up! We knew you guys would love a good prank.

Keep reading →