Pro Football Weekly compiled a list of all 2008 Free Agents by position back in November. I really haven't looked over it too much, except maybe at the list of Offensive linemen. My problem was how can you tell if an o-lineman is any good or not? Sack numbers? Yards-per-rush? Both of those variables aren't entirely dependent on the play of the o-line, but can be influenced by an elusive QB or explosive RB... but I digress.

Anyways, here's the link to the list.

Poll

What should the Bears top priority be in free-agency in 2008?

0%

Linebacker

0 votes

0%

Wide Receiver

0 votes

0%

Defensive Line

0 votes

9%

Running Back

5 votes

5%

Quarterback

3 votes

5%

Safety

3 votes

79%

Offensive Line

43 votes

54 votes | Poll has closed

According to the Score 670AM, Illinois State police found Lance Briggs' Lamborghini crashed into a light pole on the Edens Expressway at about 3:15 AM. However, Lance was nowhere to be found and there is no evidence of injury at the scene. I will post any new info as it becomes available, or leave a comment if you hear anything new.
update:
Some links: Briggs' Lamborghini Crashes On Edens
Lamborghini found crashed on Edens, may belong to Bear linebacker Briggs
Lance Briggs' $350,000 Lamborghini Found Crashed, Abandoned on Chicago Highway

As last night's contest was lurching towards it's inevitable conclusion, there was only one song that I could think of that encapsulated the sorrow of the moment. I'm sure many of you know the tune and the lyrics that go with it (along with the lines that people scream drunkenly at the bar).

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, theyd be happy for a while.

But february made me shiver
With every paper Id deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldnt take one more step.

I cant remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

So bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
Singin, thisll be the day that I die.
Thisll be the day that I die.

Did you write the book of love,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock n roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that youre in love with him
`cause I saw you dancin in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.

I was a lonely teenage broncin buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.

I started singin,
Bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
And singin, thisll be the day that I die.
Thisll be the day that I die.

Now for ten years weve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin stone,
But thats not how it used to be.
When the jester sang for the king and queen,
In a coat he borrowed from james dean
And a voice that came from you and me,

Oh, and while the king was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned;
No verdict was returned.
And while lennon read a book of marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died.

We were singing,
Bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
And singin, thisll be the day that I die.
Thisll be the day that I die.

Helter skelter in a summer swelter.
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter,
Eight miles high and falling fast.
It landed foul on the grass.
The players tried for a forward pass,
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast.

Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune.
We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the players tried to take the field;
The marching band refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?

We started singing,
Bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
And singin, thisll be the day that I die.
Thisll be the day that I die.

Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack flash sat on a candlestick
Cause fire is the devils only friend.

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
Could break that satans spell.
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

He was singing,
Bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
And singin, thisll be the day that I die.
Thisll be the day that I die.

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the sacred store
Where Id heard the music years before,
But the man there said the music wouldnt play.

And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.

And they were singing,
Bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
And them good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
Singin, thisll be the day that I die.
Thisll be the day that I die.

They were singing,
Bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin whiskey and rye
Singin, thisll be the day that I die.

American Pie, Don McLean

We all wanted the Bears to win last night, but sadly there can be only one winner. Congrats Colts, you handed us a good old fashioned butt kicking.

For as much as I hate the extra week before the Super Bowl, without it the genius that is Bear vs Colt could not exist. Plus, I had a wedding I was in this weekend (I didn't get married; just best man duties). So in all, the extra week actually worked out for the better.

Bear vs Colt has been running down the match-ups between the two in video form, whether it's at the movies, in the arcade, or at the zoo. Props to deadspin for having a link to this awesome site.

Poll

who wins?

86%

Bear

19 votes

13%

Colt

3 votes

22 votes | Poll has closed

Yesterday, Bill Parcells retired as coach of the Cowboys. Not terribly newsworthy around these parts considering that our focus is on the Super Bowl. All the talk of the Bears losing coaches hovered around the Rons. However, a convergence of factors beginning with the Cowboys job suddenly opening up could mean that Lovie may be running the team from Dallas next season. The main reasoning behind this is that Lovie is the lowest paid coach in the league and that Dallas wouldn't need much persuading to break the bank to get him.

There are two articles in Chicago papers that talk about this rumor.
Lovie talks up Dungy - Even Parcells news can't dampen Smith's spirits
Dallas needs a coach. Smith is underpaid. Hmm...

Personally, I'd like to keep Lovie around for a few reasons. For one, he's a proven winner - these are the coaches you keep. Many teams have chased off coaches before giving them much of a chance. Second, coaching turnover has plagued the league and the team in the past decade, and has been cited as a possible reason for the recent AFC dominance. The Steelers had only two different coaches in the last 40 years, and had remarkable strings of success in that period. Plus, it sets back a team by having a change in the personnel; everyone remembers how having three different OCs in his first three years in the league slowed Rex's development (outside of the injuries). Lastly, the players seem to respond to him very well and play hard for him and his system of ball hawking and turnovers.

It's ironic that Jerry's reluctance to sign Lovie to an extension after being burned by Jauron may ultimately lead to Lovie leaving the team for greener pastures. Lovie won't come cheap if he wins the Super Bowl, but at least it will cost Dallas an arm and a leg (think multiple first round picks, like the Gruden situation) to poach him this offseason.

[update]: Alright, it seems like this is a complete non-story right now. A cursory glance around the sports page of the Dallas Morning News reveals absolutely NOTHING that would indicate an interest in Lovie as head coach. Kevin Sherrington's column on the possible choices for head coach in Dallas doesn't mention Lovie as a possibility, only as a "success story in the untried assistant genre". And the Taylor chat mentions that Ron Rivera (and by extension, Lovie) wouldn't be a good choice because Ron/Lovie run a 4-3 cover-2 defense, but the Cowboys have the personnel for a 3-4 defense. Many articles mention Wade Philips as the likely choice to succeed Parcells. (props to cookding for pointing this out and causing me to look into this more)

In today's Tribune, David Haugh asks whether or not Rex Grossman was a pro-bowl snub. He mentions other QBs that got snubbed this year as well, but the crux of his arguement is this:

Michael Vick, you could understand. Vick has 990 yards rushing and a career-high 19 touchdown passes--numbers that merit NFC Pro Bowl selection.

Brett Favre would have deserved the benefit of the doubt if he were selected, even in an erratic season, for career achievement.

But Tony Romo?

I have to agree.

Tony Romo has had some good games and some mediocre performances this year, but he hasn't played a full season. Because of that small sample size, he has not had enough time to show any flaws.

After the month of September, Rex was considered a top contender for MVP. However after the near disaster in the desert where he posted a rating of 10.2, Rex began a stretch of 7 games where inconsistency was a constant. His rating fluctuated from a frothy high of 137.4 vs the Niners, to the unlucky week 13 1.3 suck-fest vs the Vikings.

Romo, while not having the bottom fall out quite as dramatically as Rex, had a stretch from weeks 9-12 where his rating was above 100 three of the four weeks. The one time in that period where his rating was below 100 was an 89.5 vs Indianapolis. At that point, the national media was ready to annoint him the second coming of Montana. In week 13, he had a lackluster performance vs the Giants in a win, posting a 58.1 rating. This performance was overshadowed by Rex's 1.3, which received more attention. The next week against the Saints his rating was 58.8.

To wrap up this diary, my point is that Rex should deserve pro-bowl consideration, but has been too inconsistent to make it. Romo, OTOH, while putting up good numbers hasn't had enough time to show whether or not he will enter a slump. Like Haugh says, Vick or Favre have a more complete body of work to look over, and deserved more consideration for the pro-bowl.

Ratings pulled from ESPN.com.

On the Yahoo Sports web page, I see that the 49ers have released ex-Bear safety Tony Parrish. In his short 4 years with the Bears from '98-02, I thought that he and Mike Brown made an excellent tandem in the Bears secondary. Considering that our depth at safety has become pretty thin lately, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to pick him up for a second time around. Thoughts?

Niners waive veteran S Parrish
Update: According to ESPN.com and first noted here by beardown, Tony has been picked up by the Dallas Cowboys. I wish him luck, yadda yadda yadda, but one of the unstated reasons why I wanted the Bears to sign him was to keep him out of the hands of other playoff bound teams who might have some holes in their secondaries. Unfortunately, Jerry wasn't thinking the same thing. I did hear on the Score yesterday that they thought he wouldn't fit in their defensive scheme. Whatever. Cowboys hoping Parrish can help shore up secondary

As much fun as the 41-10 ass-kicking of the Niners was, it wasn't exactly a perfect game by the Bears. So here's a few things I think we could improve.

Drives: The average scoring drive was 37 yards, with a long of 70 yards. In fact, only 2 drives were over 50 yards (3 if you consider the 88 yard failed drive). Most of these short drives were set up by turnovers or one sweet return by Hester, which I have no problems with. But as we saw in the AZ game, if the turnovers aren't there, the offense can struggle.

The second half: The team was probably on cruise control the second half, but two things happened in the third quarter that didn't look good. One was the failed 88-yard scoring drive, where the offense couldn't punch it in from the 2. The other occurred right after that. From their own 1-yd line, the Niners proceed to drive the ball 94 yards against our defense to end the shut-out bid with a field goal. In the process, the Niners made plays of 19 (Arnez Battle catch) and 53 yards (Frank Gore run). After that they added a 63 yard touchdown drive, but by then it really was garbage time.

The running back not named Thomas Jones who doesn't play on special teams: Benson rushed 8 times for 26 yards (3.25 avg), 1 TD, and a long of 11. Taking out his longest run of 11, he was 7 carries 15 yards for a Edgerrin James-esque 2.1 average. For someone who claimed that he'd be the starter by week 3, he really needs to step it up and soon. Or else he'll find himself behind Adrian Peterson, whose 1 carry went for 10 yards.

Otherwise, the team has been doing exactly what it needs to against weak opponents: destroy them. Though like eating cupcakes, it leaves you feeling empty. Next week we have another cupcake with aqua and orange sprinkles, and then finally we can find out where this team really stands against actual opponents in hostile environments.

I heard this earlier on the score this afternoon, and this article now confirms that Mike Brown is out indefinitely after having surgery on an injured ligament in his foot. He has not yet been put on IR, so as of right now he may still be back wayyyy later in the season.

Now's a chance for the depth in the secondary we acquired in the offseason to shine. At least JA planned for the inevitable Mike Brown injury this year. The starting strong safety spot will be between Todd Johnson, Cameron Worrell, Brandon MacGowan, and Chris Harris. Harris should be back from injury by the time the Niners come to town. MacGowan has been suspended by the team for a week for violating a team rule. I have no favorites, though Todd played well in place of Mike on Monday. Update [2006-10-18 14:46:27 by jrm78]: Bears GM Jerry Angelo will be on the Boers and Bernstein show at 3:10 PM CDT on the Score 670 AM. Streaming link at http://www.670thescore.com/

This little tidbit in Ed Sherman's sports media column in the trib (scroll down some) about the upcoming game vs. Buffalo caught my eye:

The Bears' bandwagon is beginning to grow. Nearly half of the televisions in Chicago were tuned to the Bears-Seattle game Sunday night. CBS is catching on. The network will use its top team, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, for Sunday's Bears-Buffalo game.
There have been many, many games where we've been treated to the C and Z-team play-by-play teams. The likes of Bill Maas won't be gracing our ears for once. Nice to see the networks have finally noticed. Usually we only get the A-team announcers by default because of MNF.