The big one is finally here. After the game tonight, the football season is officially over and we swing into the down months.

WCG's take:

My gut tells me that I should pick the Steelers. They have the better defense and that usually is the difference. They have been the better team for the majority of the year.  Problem is I really don't like the Steelers and I enjoy the underdog story, so I'm picking the Cardinals. AZ needs to come out fast and hard. No huddle, 5 receivers formations and anything else to nullify the Pittsburgh pass rush and get them back on their heels. Prediction: Arizona 20-17

ChiFan13's take:

The Steelers are a storied franchise, the Cardinals are the NFL's version of the Cubs. The Steelers have the Terrible Towel, the Cardinals usually have Terrible Records. Should be an easy call, right? Nope. No one believed in the Cardinals. They weren't supposed to beat the Falcons. They weren't supposed to beat the Panthers. They weren't supposed to beat the Eagles. Larry Fitzgerald has already cemented his legendary status with some unbelievable catches in the playoffs and Kurt Warner has been playing out of his mind. As a current University of Northern Iowa student and a regular shopper at the HyVee where Kurt Warner once bagged groceries, I'm going with the Cardinals. Not only am I calling that, I'm guaranteeing a win by 7. Prediction: Cardinals 27, Steelers 20

So here we are again.  A little more than one week to go to the day in which team's draft for the future (depending of course if you believe we are rebuilding).  

I came at you last week with the idea if a mock draft challenge.  This time I have a better idea of how it is we are going to run it.

Option 1 - Full First Round

Since all the experts seem to get the first picks right this one will be in reverse order, weighing more points on the back end.

Picks 1-10 are worth 1 points
Picks 11-20 are worth 2 points
Picks 21-30 are worth 3 points

Super Bowl Champion NY Giants is worth 5 points

Acceptable correct picks:

If you have the Bears taking Chris Williams at 14 and they trade back and still get Chris Williams at 20, that is a correct pick.

If the Bears move back to 20 and whoever they trade the #20 to takes Chris Williams you are correct.

Tie Breakers:

1. Most correct picks based on the team, player and position they start the draft at.
2. Most correct picks based on team and player.
3. Chicago Bears pick at 14
4. Chicago Bears pick from any number
5. NY Giants pick

I have a copy of Kenny Mayne's new book An Incomplete and Inaccurate History of Sport: . . . and Other Random Thoughts from Childhood to Fatherhood .

Option 2 - Chicago Bears Full Draft

Give me a complete Chicago Bears draft through all rounds.

Each pick is worth the number of the round, so if you are correct with round 1 you get 1 point, if you correctly select who we draft in the 7th you get 7 points.

Acceptable correct picks:

For this one I don't care about the position.  If the Bears select that player you get the points for that round.

Tie Breakers:

1. Most correct picks
2. Most correct picks per draft number
3. Some arbitrary question I'll ask if there is a tie that goes this far

I have a copy of Game of My Life: Chicago Bears by Lew Freedman.

Email all entries to WINDYCITYGRIDIRON AT GMAIL DOT COM

Starting early Monday morning Windy City Gridiron will under go it's scheduled plastic surgery to the new and improved and more professional looking site design.

The new platform offers many new and exciting features for me as the owner, but also for you.  

Tired of getting those "will not support one line diary" messages?  They are a thing of the past.  The new software will allow for the longer reader post as well as much shorter ones (comments, links, et al.).  I also have the ability to promote them to the front page in a more efficient and better looking method than before.

Also, you will now be able to claim blogs across the network without having to create your user name over and over again.

The new site will have built in schedules, rosters and stats for yours and my use.

Bear in mind that this system will be almost as new to me as it is you, so while we are efforting to make the switch as clean and painless as possible there may be some issues to deal with, but I recommend when the new digs are up that you poke around and feel free to contact me with any problems and/or suggestions, so I can make sure they get looked into.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I am looking forward to it.

I have been waiting for a chance to post some favorite clips of the Bears and anything that has anything to do with the Bears.  I realized that I was waiting too long, so I decided to just put some up today. They are in no particular order, just some of my favorites.

• First and foremost we have the Super Bowl Shuffle.  Not only is it the highest of high unintentional comedy, but many forget that the video was made before the regular season was over. Here is a Wiki article with some fun details.  Then I happened upon the Super Bowl Shuffle's evil Doppelgänger the Da Superfan Shuffle.
• Ahhhh the Memories of the Bears torrid start to the 2006 campaign.
• Here is the original Bears Fight Song "Bear Down".  Then there are the variations... A slightly odd looking member of the Lyric Opera signing "Bear Down" in operatic form. Finally, people of Chicago contribute to their own version of "Bear Down."
• I found two AWESOME commercials with William "The Refrigerator" Perry. This one for Coke and this one for McDonalds. Both of them are nothing short of amazing.
• Finally, two fan made videos of Sweetness found here and here.

This is a position that has carried a lot of disappointment, and a glimmer of hope.  The hope comes in the form of Hester and Berrian's potential, but that is still a dream.  There are answers in the draft and free agency, but I feel that what we really need is for our players to step up on the team.  Let's look at our current players beginning with the starters, and then going to the back ups, and finally to free agency and the draft.  At the end I will give an opinion of what we should do.

Current Players

On the disappointment end we have high end talents like Muhsin Muhammad who has not been playing near his full potential.  Part of this may be due to his age, and part due to the inconsistent QB situation, but he hasn't been delivering.  More than anything he really hasn't been a factor in the games outside of the first few when Griese started and he seemed to be revitalized.  He came up big against Detroit, Philadelphia, and Minnesota.  Even with those games, he really wasn't consistent this year, and this appears to have come in stark contrast to our 06 campaign when he was always helping us move the chains.  His numbers dropped a bit this year from 60 receptions in 06 to 40 this season and from 863 yards to 570 this year.  TD's were also down from 5 to 3.  His numbers have dropped some and he seems to have lost that "clutch-ness" from the 2006 campaign.  In another disappointment, I thought that Berrian was going to be Robin to Grossman Batman after the 06 Super Bowl campaign.  While he didn't become super dominant and break out as a star receiver he did make improvements.  He went from 51 receptions to 71 and from 775 yards to 951.  His TD's dropped from 6 to 5, but I don't think that is much to complain about.  I am happy with Berrian's continued growth, but he still left much to be desired.  He also has had issues with disappearing during games and dropping passes.  Moose has dropped a lot of passes as well, but his decline has been more pronounced than Berrian.  Berrian improved statistically this year, but still wasn't getting the job done consistently. Looking at our bench we can see some players who underachieving players

Continue reading this post »

This is a position that has carried a lot of disappointment, and a glimmer of hope.  The hope comes in the form of Hester and Berrian's potential, but that is still a dream.  There are answers in the draft and free agency, but I feel that what we really need is for our players to step up on the team.  Let's look at our current players beginning with the starters, and then going to the back ups, and finally to free agency and the draft.  At the end I will give an opinion of what we should do.

Current Players

On the disappointment end we have high end talents like Muhsin Muhammad who has not been playing near his full potential.  Part of this may be due to his age, and part due to the inconsistent QB situation, but he hasn't been delivering.  More than anything he really hasn't been a factor in the games outside of the first few when Griese started and he seemed to be revitalized.  He came up big against Detroit, Philadelphia, and Minnesota.  Even with those games, he really wasn't consistent this year, and this appears to have come in stark contrast to our 06 campaign when he was always helping us move the chains.  His numbers dropped a bit this year from 60 receptions in 06 to 40 this season and from 863 yards to 570 this year.  TD's were also down from 5 to 3.  His numbers have dropped some and he seems to have lost that "clutch-ness" from the 2006 campaign.  In another disappointment, I thought that Berrian was going to be Robin to Grossman Batman after the 06 Super Bowl campaign.  While he didn't become super dominant and break out as a star receiver he did make improvements.  He went from 51 receptions to 71 and from 775 yards to 951.  His TD's dropped from 6 to 5, but I don't think that is much to complain about.  I am happy with Berrian's continued growth, but he still left much to be desired.  He also has had issues with disappearing during games and dropping passes.  Moose has dropped a lot of passes as well, but his decline has been more pronounced than Berrian.  Berrian improved statistically this year, but still wasn't getting the job done consistently.

Looking at our bench we can see some players who underachieved

Continue reading this post »