Julius Peppers leaves TCF Bank Stadium showing off his NFC North Championship hat (Photo courtesy of Chicago Tribune)

Deep breath everyone.  The Chicago Bears are the 2010 NFC North Champions, becoming the first team in the NFL to wrap up their division but their work is far from over.  According to my calculations, there is still a roadmap for the NFC Championship to come through Chicago.  It seems unlikely since the Atlanta Falcons sit atop the NFC with a 12-2 record, but there is a way for the Bears to wrestle the #1 seed from Matt Ryan and his Falcons.  Follow my logic after the jump.  (more…)

5. Chicago Bears: Don’t underestimate the influence of new coordinator Mike Martz on offense. Jay Cutler’s first year was a disappointment, but Martz has been able to add three to six points to offenses with quarterbacks less talented than Cutler. The Bears averaged 19.4 points a game last year. If Martz can add about four or five points a game through Cutler’s powerful arm, the Bears might be 9-7 or better instead of 7-9.

The schedule isn’t easy because the NFC North plays the NFC East and AFC East. The Bears play a .504 schedule compared to .496 a year ago. The key is the improvement of the offense. Because expectations are down, the Bears have a chance to sneak up on teams.

The thing that J-Clay doesn’t account for is that for Jay to be effective, he’ll need to stay upright.  Martz’s offense might kill Cutler if the Bears don’t get some protection for him.

In case you’re interested, the other surprise teams are 1. Washington, 2. Carolina, 3. Oakland and 4, Atlanta.  The Bears get to face the top two supposed “surprise teams” this season.

After Zampese interviewed with the Bears for the position Jan 12-13, Lewis gave his coach a week to make a decision.

“For us, that time has come and gone as far as the deadline,” Lewis said Monday. “That’s kind of closed up, and I don’t think Lovie (Smith) has made a decision on what he wants to do yet.”

Hue Jackson is interviewing, not Hugh Jackman.

Now add Ravens quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson to the carousel.  No, not Wolverine.  That would be an improvement to the crap that they’re left to sift through for this job.  Just check out the highlights from Jackson’s resume:

- The Ravens’ 2009 passing game ranked 18th, one spot behind – you guessed it – the Ron Turner led Chicago Bears with Jackson mentoring Joe Flacco as QB’s coach.

- Back in 2003, Jackson was the OC of the Washington Redskins.  You know where that offense ranked?  23rd.

- Better yet, how about the 2007 Atlanta Falcons, where Jackson led the Falcons to a 23rd ranked offense as the OC.

Hey, at least he’s consistent.   My guy Decon is calling this whole coordinator search a joke.  Me, I’m getting pissed about the whole thing.  This is such a goddam disgrace, it makes me sick.  It almost makes me miss Ron Turner’s good old predictable bubble screens.

But don’t worry, Tim Hassellbeck thinks Jackson “has a presense.”  Yeah, so does a bad fart.  And this from the guy whose biggest accomplishment is marrying that chick from Survivor.

Maybe that’s how this whole coordinator search should go.  Turn it into a reality show.

The tribe has spoken.

Speaking of the Bears, I was at the game last week and I was so highly disturbed by their offense. I wish I tallied how many times they ran their offense with the exact same formation (2 receivers on 1 side, 1 on the other with the TE in tight). It was seriously about 90% of the time. How about some trips? 5 Wide Receiver sets? Something, Turner, give the Offense a chance.  Pick routes, flood some zones…something?  Please?   Sorry about the Seattle pick last week, that was just a bad call.  2-2 on the week last week.  On to Week 12:

Bengals -13 vs Browns – Seems like Vegas was a little too excited about the Browns scoring explosion last week in Detroit and a little down on Cinci with their poor showing in Oakland.   It is weeks like those that help keep spreads nice like these.

Texans +3 vs Colts – You know, I always pick good upsets and never add them to Bart’s Best.  I think that this is the week that the Colts undefeated season goes down and I’m willing to make it a Bart’s Best pick.  (I think the Saints are going to lose too by the way).

Falcons -12 vs Tampa Bay – I don’t quite understand the 12 point spread and usually I’ll stay away from it (other spreads I don’t like such as-4.5 or -5).  However, Tampa is a bad team and the Falcons really need this one. The Falcons will have 17-21 points by the first half.

Vikings -10.5 vs Bears – until something changes, I don’t even believe they can cover 10.5.  Sad.  Very sad day.  Division rival game and I still don’t think it is going to be close.  Prove me wrong Bears! Prove me wrong!

Notice the last paragraph was italicized.  If it seems familiar, it’s because I just left it from last week because the same damn thing happened this week.  The only difference is this – I didn’t realize how bad Seattle has gotten and I never could have imagined that a high school team (Browns) are allowed to play in the NFL (sorry high school football – don’t want to insult you).  Honestly, I’ll still find ways to pick against Dallas throughout the season that will play better.  Time to start loading up against these bad teams – because they are really bad.  Can’t be scared of those big spreads anymore.  Oh well, on to Week 9:

Falcons -10 vs Washington – Washington – Bad!  I know that they are coming off of a bye and they’ve had 2 weeks to prepare.  I know that Atlanta gave everything they had to try to fight the Saints on Monday Night.  The Falcons need this one after a tough loss and have the offensive firepower to open this one up early making Washington one-dimensional.  Once that happens – open the floodgates – 10 pts easy.  (more…)

Meanwhile, the Bengals come off a disappointing home loss to the Texans.  You would have to characterize the Bengals as a surprise team, as they sit atop the tough AFC North with a 4-2 record overall and a mind-numbing 3-0 record in the division with impressive wins against the Steelers and Ravens along with a road win in Green Bay.

Before the season started, I had this as a slam dunk win, but not so fast.  I hate to say it, but these Bengals are for real.  They have discovered a running game with Cedric Benson – yes, that Cedric Benson and Carson Palmer is regaining his old Pro Bowl form.  But fear not Bears fans, this is still a very winnable game.  Here are my Keys to the Game:  (more…)

I pulled this video from Comcast Sports Net Chicago.  The Cutler video is trimmed, but not by much, as I watched it live in the CSN postgame show.  Jay wasn’t exactly in a talkative mood after another prime time loss where he didn’t perform at his best.  As Lovie Smith alludes to, this was a team loss and it does start with him.  His team came in with 2 weeks to prepare and they looked like that?  Inexcusable.  Here’s the video: