My Dixie Normus

Match up of the week is on Monday, N.Y. Giants at Dallas. By the way, we will see Pit/Atl on CBS, GB/Mia on Fox at noon and Min/Sea at 3. That is going to be some good nut scratching football to watch.

He benefits from being the weakside linebacker in a cover 2. His stats are inflated and his market is limited to those teams that play cover 2. Not because he can't play other defenses well but if you are going to pay him for his stats, you should be running the same defense he excels in. The Bears may tag him but they can get other LBs who can play well in cover 2.

The Cardinals did not make Grossman play as bad as he did. That is all on him. His passes were horrendous and when he did get one close to a WR, they dropped it. That and a complete abandoning of the run were what kept the Cardinals in it. I still think if Grossman connects with Berrian on the first play of the game, the Cardinals would have lost 31-10. That said, I never want to see that play again.

The 46 defense has nothing to do with 4 or 6. The name comes from the jersey number of Doug Plank, the strong safety. In the 46 defense, the strong safety (Plank on the Bears) comes up to the R-OLB position and the R-OLB slides to the center or in most cases on the left side of the 'mike' (MLB). The main objective of the formation is to clog all line gaps and still pressure the QB. The MLB can rush or slide back into coverage based on the offensive formation. The corners, free safety and the MLB play a zone coverage with a strong rush by the other 7-8 players. The defense is essentially obsolete since the advent of the west coast offense in which flooding a zone is easily done. West coast QBs start in the shot gun thereby providing enough time for a slant or out pattern. Twin WRs (two WRs on the same side) or a TE (crates a strong side) along with Zebra motion (the second WR is the Z or zac) can drown a 4 zone coverage scheme. Here would be a typical play call to defeat a 46. Pro left, zac motion, on 2. The formation at the line would be WR right (Z), WR left, TE on the left side. The QB calls for motion (Stamps his foot on the ground) and the Zebra moves to the left side of the offensive line. Against a 46, you have three receivers against two defenders. There is a check down progression but there is going to be an open man in there somewhere. The Bears now play Cover 2. Cover two refers to two areas of the field, the flat - the area 5-10 yards deep to the left and right of the ends and the middle of the field. The keys to success in the cover two is having the personnel. Corners have to be able to jam WRs at the line effectively. MLBs have to be able to cover effectively. DEs have to be able to pressure effectively. The major vulnerability of the cover two is 'the seam' and deep. In cover two, one of the safeties always plays back for support. The MLB drops into coverage over the middle and the other safety can provide strong side coverage or shoot a gap (blitz). TEs like Gonzalez, Heap and Winslow are extremely dangerous in cover two because they can expoit the seem and run a deep pattern. The cover two is a very high risk, reward defense. You have to have the right personnel to be effective. The Bears make it work because they have all of the pieces. They have two DEs who rush well. They have solid cover corners and the MLB in the game. The safeties are also the key because who ever is left in coverage has to be able to recover for a corner who gets beat. Mike Brown was one of the best in the game at this and that is why he is a huge loss for the Bears. Hope that helps.

Gotta love You Tube.... Da Bears.

If the Bears get past the Giants, the last team that can beat them is NE. November might be tough. 3 road games, all out east. But if they get past those three, we are looking at 16-0.

What make you think I am only looking at the stats. I never miss a play. Like I said before, a third of his rushes go for a loss. He isn't breaking tackles. He is not getting through the holes. What you described about Jones is elusiveness. Most consider that a good quality in a RB. Benson has very little of that. Grossman has only thrown away 8 balls this year. If you mean he gets rid of it before he gets tackled, um, yeah. That is the idea. Back to my original point. The Bears are not a better team splitting carries. Jones is more talented and should be the featured back with Benson spelling him and mopping up. I am sorry you picked him in the second round of your fantasy draft but Benson won't be/shouldn't be much more than that this year.

ESPN Zone? He could do that just about anywhere. There is an ESPN Zone in Terminal 3 at O'Hare. I think he is looking for something with a little more local flavor. If you are coming in town to soak up some Bear fever, the only place to break bread before the game would be Mike Ditka's 100 E. Chestnut St. (312-587-8989). From there, Rush Street will be hoppin. Not for the game but I always recommend that anyone coming to the downtown area go to The Boss Bar on Clark. Big busted women serve cold beers and whiskey shots. A true Chicago bar. If you are coming with the ladies and need one white table cloth and wine night out, go to Keefer's on Kinzie. Bring money but you should get a blow job out of the deal. It hasn't failed me yet. P.S. If it just the guys, go to Greek Islands for dinner then walk over to Dugan's for some beers afterword. You should make a stop for a Taylor Street Beef too. My personal favorite is Victoria's but there are more than a couple on Taylor that will not disappoint. The best 4am eats is the Wiener Circle. Expect a bad attitude from the counter chick, it is part of the shtick.

I have noticed that. It hasn't been much different for Jones in the first 4 weeks. I would say that there are two areas of concern, room for improvement on this team it is run blocking and the corners, Tilman particularly. That is hard to say about a team that has an 4-0 record and scores 29 points a game. I am not so much anti-Benson as I am pro-Bears. I have been saying since before camp that this is the season to put a whole bunch of pieces together and go deep into the playoffs. I can not think of a Superbowl team that had a sophomore RB as a major part of the offense. The closest would be 2003-4 NE Patriots with Smith. Then you have to go all the way back to the '80s (9ers). Hub Arkish was talking about this the other day. I can not quote the stats verbatim but it was something like this. Teams with a 300yrd passer win 51% of the time. Teams with a 100yrd WR win 57% of the time. Teams with a 100yrd rusher win 74% of the time. If you think about it, it makes sense. The team that runs well controls the clock. If they are still running in the 4th quarter, it usually means they have the lead. Anyway, here is how I see Benson's season. He will get 14. I think it speaks volumes about where the Bears think Benson is when they were still rushing Jones with 6 minutes left in the 4th and a 31 point lead. Benson has burst and break away speed but he lacks vision right now. In college, where the defensive linemen are much smaller, the holes are much bigger, you can get away with that. In the NFL, most defensive linemen are huge and strong. They can wrap up a guy while being blocked long enough for help to arrive. Benson has to find a way to exploit the seams. He hasn't been able to do that so far. He has not been able to run outside either. He is indecisive and doesn't know when to cut it up field. He has a long way to go. I hope he gets there but right now Jones is the best option for the Bears.

Yes, Benson blows. 11 for 37 when you got 51% of that on one play blows. A third of his touches go for negative yards which blows. Jones had one rush for negative yards... ONE! The offensive linemen have bruises on thier asses from Benson running into them. And yes, Jones is a proven productive back in the Bears offense. 1375 APY in 2004 (14 games) and 1478 APYs in 2005 (15 games) is proven production. 98 avg. yards of total offense per game, over 29 games is proven production. He blocks better, catches better, runs better, breaks tackles better, protects the ball better and is better in the locker room. Better, better, better... see the pattern? He hasn't missed a blocking assignment all year. Grossman has been sacked 3 times. He is not the most mobil QB in the league so where are all the sacks on those "several blown assignments"?

Neither runner gets on track if you do that. That and Benson sucks. Jones is proven.

I thought I would try to get inside Smith's head and game plan week 4. The Bears have been a passing team this year. Here is how they have spread the ball around. Player ------------ - Target - Rec - Yard - TD Muhsin Muhammad - 27 - 19 - 279 - 0 Bernard Berrian - 21 - 12 - 208 - 2 Desmond Clark - 17 - 12 - 193 - 1 Jason McKie - 8 - 6 - 41 - 0 Rashied Davis - 7 - 5 - 87 - 1 Thomas Jones - 7 - 5 - 13 - 0 Mark Bradley - 3 - 1 - 5 - 0 John Gilmore - 2 - 2 - 8 - 2 Gabe Reid - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 Cedric Benson - 1 - 0 - 0 - 0 A lot has been made of the rebirth of the TE in Chicago this year but Jason McKie has added one extra check down. The Bears have so many weapons to throw to, it is very difficult to game plan against the passing game. Up to MN, DET & GB keyed on Jones and tried to force the Bears to beat them with Grossman. And he did. The Vikings threw 50 blitz packages at Grossman but the Bears failed to adjust the running game to take advantage of that. Seattle is going to come into this week without the services of MVP Shuan Alexander. I think they are going to be looking to take advantage of the weak play of Tilman and the rookie Manning. I expect a ton of passing to that part of the field. In this case, the best counter would be ball control. My guess would be Jones will get 30+ carries and Benson 5-8. Peterson may even see some action. The passing game will be a few dinks and dunks with an occasional shot down field. But if it ain't there, Grossman is going to throw it way out of anyone's reach. This will make him look bad but I think that will be the plan. Grossman has 33 incomplete passes. Pass Dropped - 2 Poor Throw - 12 Pass Defensed - 7 Pass Hit at Line - 2 Other - 7 (generally means ball was thrown away.) Intercepted - 3 The last stat will be the key. The Bears need to play ball control. They can not give the ball up and end drives. Good old fashion run the ball down their throats, ball control Bear football. I expect the Bears will throw several blitz packages at Hass. They need to close the pocket quickly and not give him time to have plays develop down field. My 2¢. Any other thoughts?

Benson got hurt on a "freak play" in which he was barely touched in practice. Jones is going to be a Bear and in the starting line-up against Green Bay and on. Book it. The Jets would have to blow JA away with and offer of players and picks for him to give up Jones at this point.

I have no idea what credentials this guy has in football but he has no credibility with me just for this one article. The Bears had a great opportunity to make huge strides this off season and failed to do so. Yes, they had very little turn over this off season. But they knew that in September of last year. The only hole filled was a back up QB. They blew the draft BIG TIME. They should have gotten the top TE prospect they need. They didn't. They should have gotten some top tier offensive line talent. They didn't. They should have gotten a solid LBer prospect. They didn't. This off season sucked. Plain sucked. Opportunity missed. To give the Bears high marks for something (all starters returning) now is a joke. That was done at the beginning of the offseason. No worries, no major holes to fill and what did they do with the get out jail free card, nothing. They blew it.

With Jones at the starting RB, the Bears take the division easily. With Benson, it will be struggle.

The Bears have never played a RBBC offense and unless the begin to lose ball games, it ain't gonna happen this year. This year is about getting deep into the playoffs, perhaps all the way to February. The job is Jones' to lose. "With Jones attitude issues this year (which came out of nowhere)..." News Headline - Jones signs with Mega Sports Agent, Drew Rosenhaus. News Headline - Jones cops attitude. Feel free to replace the name Jones with any player in this guy's barn. Jones next contract will most likely be his last in the NFL if RB life cycles play-out true to from here. He just had a big year (the biggest of his career) and Benson/Injury threatens a repeat performance. Rosenhaus is striking when the iron is hottest. This can be nothing but bad for the Bears and Jones if it gets out of hand. That said, Jerry Angelo has one of the best relationships in the league with this dick. His client list.... Seen any of these names in the headlines lately? Bolded are just a few of the guys who I can think of that have had less than graceful contract negotiations. * Anquan Boldin, wide receiver, Arizona Cardinals. * Lance Briggs, outside linebacker, Chicago Bears. * Plaxico Burress, wide receiver, New York Giants. * Najeh Davenport, running back, free agent. * Darnell Dockett, defensive lineman, Arizona Cardinals. * Reuben Droughns, running back, Cleveland Browns. * Tommie Harris, defensive tackle, Chicago Bears. * Edgerrin James, running back, Arizona Cardinals. * Grady Jackson, defensive lineman, Green Bay Packers. * Chad Johnson, wide receiver Cincinnati Bengals. * Willis McGahee, running back Buffalo Bills. * Dan Morgan, middle linebacker, Carolina Panthers. * Santana Moss, wide receiver, Washington Redskins. * Terrell Owens, wide receiver, Dallas Cowboys. * Clinton Portis, running back, Washington Redskins. * Warren Sapp, defensive lineman, Oakland Raiders. * Jeremy Shockey, tight end, New York Giants. * Dwight Smith, safety, New Orleans Saints. * Duane Starks, cornerback, Oakland Raiders. * Marcus Stroud, defensive lineman, Jacksonville Jaguars. * Fred A. Taylor, running back, Jacksonville Jaguars. * Sean Taylor, safety, Washington Redskins. * Zach Thomas, linebacker, Miami Dolphins. * Billy Volek, quarterback, Tennessee Titans.

I like Jones #1 and Peterson #2. Benson showed me crap last year. Jones is the #1 on a team that could not pass the ball. Every NFL team knew he was the best thing about the offense last year yet he still topped 1300 yards while missing, what was it 1 or 2 games? Just hope Jones and his a-hole agent don't get in the way of another solid year from him. The Bears do NOT play RBBC and will not this year. This is Jones' job to lose. And all this crap with not going to work-outs and talk of a hold-out are the kind of things that will cost him his job. That said, the Bears can not afford to lose Jones. There is not another back on the roster who can carry the NFL load on a run heavy offense. Settle this thing and get his happy ass into camp on tiime.