The second reason is that I could not think calmly enough to write down the anger and fury that left me seething after that loss.

I swear to you that my blood is still boiling now.

Let me start with what I am NOT mad about: (more…)

What I’ve always wondered about the Mad Scientist was: what did he think about his creation once he animated him? It’s easy to understand that in the beginning the Mad Scientist’s obsessive quest was simply about manipulating chemistry, re-engineering biology and warping the laws of nature. But what about afterwards? When he’s done marveling at what he’s accomplished… what does he see when he looks at this patchwork of limbs and stitching? When he looks into the eyes of his creature, what does he see? Is he stoically jaded, allowing his repulsion of anything beyond the manageable confines of his laboratory to ignore the potential soul within the creature? Or, deep down, is he like Geppetto, who truly sculpted what he secretly desired…

Does Martz care enough about this offense, about the guys on this offense, to let THEM stamp their character into it? Is he willing (and able) to remove his biases about what an offense should be and allow this creation to begin to control its own destiny? This week’s game demonstrated that Martz has learned what his team can do well, and allowed them to leverage the running game to control the tempo of this game. The key to next week: is Martz willing to let his offense continue down that path against a foe who KNOWS this game plan? Is Martz willing to trust his offensive line to continue to pound a running game against a darn good defense that will be looking for a rushing play on first and ten?

Stories of the Game: (more…)

The Packers learned from the mistakes of the Jets, and blitzed non-stop. And the Bears didn’t do themselves any favors by putting themselves in obvious passing situations throughout the game; and then by actually passing once they found themselves in those obvious passing situations.

As a die-hard Bears fan, I am unable to stomach the loss of this game. We lost this game because Mike Martz failed to adjust to the defensive scheme of the Packers. We lost because Johnny Knox proved to be more like a gazelle, with incredible speed but no strength to fight off bump coverage. We lost because Jay Cutler gets nervous when he gets hit, and when he’s nervous, he loses the accuracy of his throws even when he doesn’t get hit. And, I believe, we lost primarily because Mike Martz wanted to experiment some more. Mike Martz wanted to see if he could push his passing schemes down the field against a 3-4, non-Cover-2 defense. He’s lucky Jay Cutler survived.  (more…)

What are the laws of nature to a Mad Scientist? They are simply elements to be manipulated, to be stretched and stressed and examined through conflict. A “peer” to our Mad Scientist once said that Energy is equal to Mass times the Speed of Light squared (E=Mc²). Our Mad Scientist chose this week to stretch the bounds of these three “laws of nature”:

A) Energy – the Bears were supposed to lay down lifeless after their surprising conquest of the local town (known as the NFC North). Yet, somehow, the Mad Scientist (and his sidekick Ticegor) elevated the energy levels of their offense.

B) Mass – the “storyline” for our TV analysts and commentators were how good the Jet’s defensive backs were. What I saw were defensive backs getting away with numerous bumps and holds miles away from the line of scrimmage.

C) Speed – What is the force of mass compared to the speed of light? Using the misshapen logic that electrifies his cranium, only our Mad Scientist could deduce that the best course of action was to “attack” the DB’s force with our WR’s speed.

Now, there are numerous debates about whether Einstein missed a central element in his equation; there are many who believe that he failed to properly adapt his principle to the concept of one of the most important elements of nature:

D) Time - Our Mad Scientist (with a special shout-out to his hunchbacked assistant, Ticegor) found a way to bend time. The offensive line handled the Jet’s defensive front four better than any other game they’ve played all season. By giving JC three to four solid seconds, the offensive line allowed the receivers to use their speed advantage over the Jets DB’s, and ultimately stand up for their quarterback who insisted before the game that he would not shy away from throwing at Revis and Cromartie.

Stories of the Game: (more…)

The legend of the Mad Scientist and his monster goes like this: Mad Scientist brings to life a once inanimate “creation”. Mad Scientist uses the monstrous being to horrify and ravage the local town. Local mob organizes, grabs torches, hunts down the “monster” and captures Mad Scientist, sending him to asylum for the rest of his days…

But that’s not the way it really happened.  (more…)

His voice hoarse from screaming “It’s alive”, his lungs failing him after dancing his happy dance, our Mad Scientist slumps bent over his control panel, gasping and depleted from his joyous self-congratulatory celebration. His “animate” creation stands before him, his head cocked sideways as if to ask “What now?”

What now? That is the question our Mad Scientist has wrestled with all week. Now that he knows his creation works, now that he knows it can function despite aggressive defenses, poor routes, bad decisions, and time outs at the oddest moments… what should he “DO” with it?

Well, it seems apparent that the first thing our Scientist is doing is examining what his creation can do. Can it run the ball up the middle {Check!}? Can it spread defenses with a long bomb attempt to Hester (ugly, but okay, sort of!)? Can it run screens (no… no, it can’t). What’s this limb over here with the number “80” on it? Can I abuse that in different directions and make it hang onto the ball (heck yeah, wow, that works!)

Our Scientist has remained lucid since the bye week. He has learned what he has with this unit and he has remained within a smaller “range” of his usual creativity. But, the “Mad” part of him still pops out at times, where he believes he can pass his way out of ANY situation, even 3^rd and short at a critical time of the game…  (more…)

It moves! It half-lumbers, half-shuffles off the table. After all of this careful work, after intensely measuring such fragile ingredients, after successfully balancing nerve-wracking nurturing with flat-out guesswork, what is going through the mind of our triumphant Mad Scientist? Is he dancing a jig, giggling like a crazed hermit? Is he slumped in exhaustion, his head buried in his sweaty labcoat? Are his arms raised in tearful elation or folded in self-congratulatory satisfaction?

I believe that our Mad Martz is a perfectionist. I believe that the elation of watching his offense score 21 points in one half, of managing a single series that lasted over TEN minutes, of seeing his once inanimate quarterback throw FOUR touchdowns without an interception… I believe the satisfaction, joy, pride and sense of accomplishment that he felt at the end of that game lasted… only until he saw the game film.

There were some GREAT things in this game. But, there were some horrible ones too. I’m personally puzzled at how we could be so GOOD and so BAD, yet be so dominant.  (more…)

To the commoner’s eye, there is the mistaken belief that the Mad Scientist’s world is a world of “science”. Or, at least, the commoner thinks that the Mad Scientist believes he dabbles in a world of logic and structured reason and that he is mad because he is confounded by man’s inability to understand that logic. But this is not the case.

Our Mad Scientist lives in a world of magic. His madness comes (I believe) from the fluctuations in the rules, the shifts in patterns, and staggering alterations of what works one week and fails utterly the next. His madness is a madness born from desiring greatness, but the chemistry of his world constantly changes, and his formulas that worked once, only fizzle or fade today.

But, our Mad Scientist, out of necessity and with limited ingredients, has struck on something beautiful and remarkable. The rules of the world have changed. And what was a “conservative” use of a rather common formula has somehow morphed into something unusual. Though it is hazy and foggy now; it sparks at odd moments. And it is growing while he watches.

He wants desperately to help its growth, but he has learned that if he adds too much of one ingredient or over-emphasizes what was once a high-powered ingredient, it could diminish and fail. Yes, the madness of our scientist is born from the urgency of keeping a flickering flame alive with charcoal and kindling while a gallon of kerosene sits idly next to him.

Over the course of the last couple weeks, I think our Mad Mike Martz has learned something about Jay Cutler, and I think that Jay Cutler has learned something about himself. And I think this combination is growing in confidence and intensity. It’s still early, and we still haven’t beaten a “good” team yet. But our offense moved the ball on a pretty good defense on Thursday despite not having the best field position.

1) Playcalling

• MORE Unbalanced Playcalling favoring the RUSH: 33 total “attempted” pass plays versus 36 rushing plays.
• On first down: 19 Rushing Plays versus just 9 Passing Plays.
• Why Pass on first down?
  • On first down, Matt Forte ran for gains of +20, +11, and +9 four times!
  • In first half, Forte rushed for an average of 6.4 yards on 1^st down
  • In second half (not including last two drives where it was obvious we were running out the clock), Forte rushed for an average of 5 yards on 1^st down.
• JC’s Performance:
  • Cutler: 16 for 25, 156 yards, 1 INT
  • On 3^rd Down: 10 of 18 for 56%
• Rushing yardage total: 107 yards.
  • Forte: 25 rushes for 97 yards (3.9 average)
  • Taylor: 11 rushes for 10 yards (0.9 average)
  • Interesting disparity in rushing success:
    • For Forte: 14 out of 25 rushes went for 3 yards or more. Six rushes went for 0 or negative yards.
    • For Taylor, only three rushes went for 3 yards or more (longest run 5 yards). 5 out of 11 rushes went for zero or negative yards.

(more…)