Let's say Jay Cutler can't go again Sunday against Seattle.
Do you go down the same road that led to four interceptions, a 5.3 yards-per-completion average and a 6.2 passer rating?
Or do you give Caleb Hanie the chance he has been working toward for almost two and a half seasons?
Stating his case, while cautioning:
Hanie's appeal still may be that he is the devil we do not know. But on Sunday Todd Collins became the devil we do know.
That's an important nugget to remember for rabid Bears fans / general managers / team owners who are always looking at the next quarterback as the savior to lead them back from the desert into the promised land.
Pompei continues the laundry list of QB faults, and actually gets around to naming the quarterback who is the subject of his derision:
What Collins did well Sunday was hand off to Matt Forte and Chester Taylor without incident.
Everything else a quarterback is supposed to do, he did poorly.
Given the nature of the game plan, all the Bears really needed from Collins was for him to convert some third downs. He had eight chances to throw on third down and failed at every one of them. He threw three interceptions, he was sacked once, he had three incompletions and he had one completion for 4 yards when the team needed 7.
Finally we get get a quote from Todd Collins. Give credit where credit is due, please. Collins took full responsibility for his bad game.
"It was probably my worst game ever, since I've been playing any sport," said Collins, who has probably played in thousands of games in his 38 years. "It's not like it was a surprise getting pulled. It's disappointing, but I was most disappointed in how I played."
Pompei's piece continues:
What was so disappointing about Collins' performance is it wouldn't have taken much for him to look like a savior.
From all that you have read here so far, would you have ANY idea whatsoever that the Bears handily won the game? Do you have any clues that Dan Pompei even knows the first name of the quarterback onto whom he so viciously piles?
But perhaps, you say, EVERYBODY knows the Bears won. Possibly, but consider the first two paragraphs of David Haugh's column written about the same game:
With one instinctive razor-sharp cut, Matt Forte broke left and saw nothing in front of him but 68 yards of green.
The only thing more vast was the opportunity suddenly in front of the Bears if Forte carries the football with the authority he did in Sunday's 23-6 victory over the Panthers at Bank of America Stadium.
Here we learn that the bears won, convincingly and that Matt Forte had a great game.
Back to Pompei:
The Bears were going against an outmanned defense that was missing its starting free safety. The Bears took command early and didn't have to take risks. The run game was humming. The Panthers' defenders were crowding the box as if it were the office elevator seconds after the 5 p.m. whistle.
And Collins took advantage of none of it.
There's an expression, that you dance with the one that brung you to it. I'd like to know (because I fell soundly asleep before the first quarter ended and slept through the entire game) what happened to the running game later? Whose decision was it to continue throwing the ball when the QB was having a very bad day, but WAS doing a fine job of handing it off. That's not all on the quarterback. You do have to play with the personnel you put on the field, and a well-coached team surely ought to play to their strengths.
Another interesting thing about Pompei's column is that nowhere does it include the final score. The closest he comes is in mentioning that the Bears had a 17-6 lead when Caleb Hanie was sent into the game to play QB.
So, sure quarterback Todd Collins had a bad game - his stats say it all. But here's a clue: Dan Pompei's column just ain't all that hot. What's the score, Dan? Some of us would like to know.
Meanwhile, the snake of snark, Steve Rosenbloom, whom I am not particularly fond of as a columnist, has the decency to point out who is to blame for sticking so long with a quarterback who's having a bad day. Rosenbloom also asks the obvious question about why in the world did it take so long to pull Todd Collins?
Fire Jerry Angelo. Fire Todd Collins. Fire all the co-conspirators involved in the plot to embarrass the Bears the way the general manager’s joke of a choice of a veteran backup quarterback did in Sunday’s exasperating 23-6 win over a pathetic Carolina team.
Rosenbloom continues (this appears to be in the online edition only) with writing that sizzles
Todd Collins was so bad that the Bears needed NORAD to find his passes. Thank goodness the defense was abusing a Panthers offense begging to be put down.
Collins was so bad that the Bears tried to run out the clock with 2:45 to go in the first half. The Bears weren’t smart enough to pull Collins then and he didn’t have enough pride to quit right there. Thank goodness the defense was making Panthers quarterback Jimmy Clausen look every bit the rookie that he is.
Collins was so bad that he threw three interceptions in four series, one at the goal line to the fattest guy on the field. Thank goodness the defense put the Panthers in third-and-ridiculous almost every series.
The Bears went touchdown, touchdown, field goal by running almost exclusively on their first three drives, then the Collins-led unit went interception, interception, punt, interception, punt, punt, punt, interception, benched.
Once the Panthers stopped the run, Collins stopped the Bears.
Whoever heard of using the run to set up the interception?
And then there is also the offensive coach, ostensibly tasked with play-calling:
Collins’ fourth interception came when he was trying to throw deep to Johnny Knox. Doesn’t Collins know he can’t throw deep? Doesn’t Mike Martz know it, too?
No vision, no poise, no accuracy, no clue.
No more. Please, no more.
I tried to fire Angelo after his idea of an offensive line managed to concuss the star quarterback last week. I’ll try it again this week for the way he stuck the Bears with his cockamamie idea of a veteran backup.
At least fire Collins. If the Bears are holding people accountable for their play, then Collins shouldn’t have been allowed on the plane home. Cut him at airport security. Let TSA intercept his carry-on.
Yes, DO hold management responsible! Angelo is making the personnel decisions, and some of them seem, with the benefit of hindsight, to be abysmal.
But in all of this, please note, this is a random sample of size one. One game. One bad game. Okay, one real bad game for Todd Collins. And if you run him out of town on the rails now, THEN who will play back-up quarterback to Caleb Hanie if Jay Cutler is not ready to go next week?
Disbelieving fair weather Bears fan that I have become, it is impossible to argue this analysis of our division leading Chicago Bears:
Apparently, it’s going to be this way with the Bears this year. Wins are wins, and the uglier and more frustrating the better, apparently. Starting great, then plummeting back to the quality of their inept opposition might not be a good plan, but it’s at least a plan.
But jeez, how can a team be 4-1, hold first place, and look so hopeless?
Okay. They look bad. I understand, and I've notcied (when I haven't been sleeping). But they have won, and in football, that beats the alternatives.
Rosenbloom next speculates, and doing that thing that Sam Smith always did with the Chicago Bulls - suggesting personnel moves - the Man Who Would Be General Manager:
Bigger question is, now what?
You can’t bring back Collins unless the goal is to kill everyone’s will. Caleb Hanie? He’s a better choice than Collins, but then, so is Virginia McCaskey. How about Kurt Warner? He knows the Martz offense and it looks like he’ll be available, given what I’ve seen from him on “Dancing With the Stars.’’
I'd like to think this is speculation, about the goal being to kill everyone's will. A team plays with the players it plays with. If the team's will can be killed because of starting one player, who admits to having had a very bad day, then what exactly does that say about the rest of the team? How professional is that? The Bears' defense has kept them in just about every game this year. Real Chicago Bear football is smash mouth defensive football. This is what Chicago Bears fans know in their guts.
Back to David Haugh who continues to score big points with the quotes he gets and the analysis he makes, all the while doing a real reporter's job - telling us about the who's, and the what's:
"When you put your mind to it, call running plays and the offensive line blocks like they did, you can run the ball," Forte said after gaining a career-high 166 yards on 22 carries with two touchdowns. "It was about the same as it was passing the ball last week (against the Giants), except the opposite."
I don't know if Chicago should be prouder of Mike Martz finally emphasizing the running game so the Bears ground out 218 rushing yards. Or the way Lovie Smith somehow convinced Martz, his mad-genius play-caller, to resist the urge to self-destruct with downfield pass plays neither subpar sub Todd Collins nor Caleb Hanie looked capable of completing.
So far, in rating these sportswriters:
Pompei just phoned it in, probably early in the third quarter. He made his point about the tepid play of Collins early, but just kept piling it on. Like the class bully who picks on the kid all the cool kids hate. Mean-spirited.
Haugh has done a fine job, getting a great quote from Matt Forte, who gives kudos to the offensive line, which they probably appreciate.
Rosenbloom writes with wit and style, and obviously watched the whole game.
Not one of the writers entertains for even one moment, the possibility that Todd Collins admits to having had the worst game of his life, and might not be as bad as he looked.
Another thing none of these writers mentions is that in 2010 the Bears DID draft a quarterback, Dan LeFevour, whom they subsequently dropped from the roster. LeFevour really impressed me with his throwing ability, and impressed the Cincinnati Bengals enough that they found room for him with their team. There are a couple of things you cannot teach a quarterback. One is to be 6' 3" tall. The other is to weigh 229 pounds. Had the Bears kept LeFevour, whom I liked, they would have had several million more dollars to invest in, say, a proven offensive lineman? LeFevour is one of only three quarterbacks the Bears have drafted since 2000. The other two, of course, Rex Grossman and Kyle Orten.
Here, however, is Vaughn McClure exhibiting the kind of sports writing that inspires. The kind of writing that makes us proud of our sports heroes for the one thing we have any right to ask them to do: to play the game to the best of their abilities.
As Julius Peppers jogged off the field at Bank of America Stadium for the first time as the enemy, he casually tossed a glove into the stands then embraced former Panthers teammate Steve Smith inside the tunnel.
"I still have a lot of respect for him and these guys," Peppers said of the injured Smith and the Panthers. "Just because it didn't work out upstairs, I still have a lot of respect for the coaches and all the players.
"I think you can see that by everybody coming up to me. I found (Panthers) coach John Fox before the game and shook his hand and had a few words with him. It was a good time."
...
The defensive end appreciated the cheers and welcomed the jeers Sunday.
"I loved it,'' he said. "I am over here now. See my shirt? I'm not the home team, so that is what is expected.
"I think when I first came out, I heard cheers. But I didn't expect to hear the cheers the whole game.''
It's a familiar story. Star player takes the money, goes elsewhere. But has good things to say about his teammates and coaches. Maybe nothing good to say about the suits running the thing.
But the fans, they appreciate him. He's their guy, because he was born there, and played there all his life, until now.
And the man can flat out play. I slept through this, but reread McClure's description, savoring it more each time:
Peppers didn't record a sack, but fans couldn't help but applaud the tone-setting play he made midway through the first quarter. He fought off a cut block attempted by ex-teammate Geoff Schwartz, tipped a pass by rookie quarterback Jimmy Clausen, fell to his knees and still managed to corral the ball before it hit the ground.
"Amazing,'' linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa said. "You can't explain a play like that. You just have to see it.''
After the play, Peppers popped up, palmed the ball, then put a finger over his mouth to shush the home fans.
"I was having a little fun with the crowd,'' Peppers said. "I don't take it personal. Neither should they.''
Sure Peppers, who spent eight seasons in Carolina, heard plenty of booing early in the game, particularly after he tackled running back DeAngelo Williams on the Panthers' first series. But the majority of folks understood what he meant to the franchise.
And if anyone forgot, Peppers reminded them with that jaw-dropping interception.
So, what exactly is the responsibility of a sportswriter?
To feed us red meat? To pile on to a man who's down? To give us the score? To get us some quotes? To point out the good, the bad the ugly? To exalt the brilliant, or to deride failure?
I know my own
My own know me.
Great column Vaughn.
