November 11, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore (21) carries the ball against the St. Louis Rams during the fourth quarter at Candlestick Park. The against the San Francisco 49ers tied the St. Louis Rams 24-24. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

The Chicago Bears head out to San Francisco to take on the 49ers in a Monday Night Football showdown.  The Bears will certainly be without Jay Cutler, as the concussed quarterback will sit out a week while he recovers.  On the other side of the field, Alex Smith practiced three days but hasn’t faced any contact as of Saturday.  If Smith can’t go, backup Colin Kaepernick will bring his “WildKap” style up against the Bears defense.

It was going to be a tough game for the Bears even with Cutler, but without him, it’s looking that much tougher.  Jason Campbell is a capable backup, but he’s still a bit rusty and will face a tough challenge against a very physical San Fran defense.   To help us prepare for this Monday Night Football showdown, we’ve enlisted the help of Eric Melendez, editor of Niner Noise for our weekly Q&A.  Here are my questions and Eric’s answers: (more…)

Nov 4, 2012; Nashville, TN, USA; Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte (22) warms up before a game against the Tennessee Titans at LP Field. Mandatory credit: Don McPeak-US PRESSWIRE

This week on Monday Night Football, the Chicago Bears (7-2) and San Francisco 49ers (6-2-1) will battle for NFC supremacy at Candlestick Park for the 62^nd meeting in the team’s histories.  The 49ers hold the series edge with a record of 31-29-1.  The Bears have won three of the last four games, but have lost the last seven in San Francisco.

The Bears have already ruled out QB Jay Cutler with a concussion, so we are going to see how well backup QB Jason Campbell can perform after a full week of preparation.  He has played six games on Monday night (3-3) and started 70 career games (31-39) since 2006.  Bears fans will be keeping a close eye on him after last year’s backup debacle with Caleb Hanie.  If Campbell struggles early, look out for chants for Josh McCown echoing through the Bay.

The 49ers QB Alex Smith also suffered a concussion last week but will most likely get the start.  He is finally living up to the potential of a first overall pick, leading the 49ers to a 19-5-1 record since the beginning of last season.  This year, he is completing 70 percent of his passes and has thrown 13 touchdowns to go along with only five interceptions.  The Bears defense may have trouble forcing turnovers by a stingy Smith, but he has been sacked 24 times with only 217 pass attempts.

Let’s take a look at some fun facts for the showdown in San Francisco.

0-5:  Combined career record of Jay Cutler, Jason Campbell and Josh McCown in games played in San Francisco.

1985: The last time the Bears won a game on the road against the 49ers.

0:  Touchdowns scored by the Bears the last time they played against the 49ers in San Francisco on November 12, 2009.

57.0:  49ers QB Alex Smith’s quarterback rating in two career games against the Bears.

54.3:  Bears QB Jason Campbell’s quarterback rating in two career games against the 49ers.

120:  Receiving yards by Matt Forte the last time the Bears played against the 49ers in San Francisco.

5:  Number of interceptions thrown by Cutler the last time the Bears player against the 49ers in San Francisco.

1:  Number of times that Campbell has thrown more than two interceptions in a game.

170.2:  Average rushing yards per game by the 49ers this season, first in the NFL.

9:  Number of turnovers by the 49ers this season, sixth in the NFL.

28.8:  Average yards per kick return by 49ers opponents this season, second worst in the NFL.

35.92:  Average yards per kick return by Devin Hester against NFC West opponents (13 returns), including two touchdowns.

4:  Number of times the Bears have turned the ball over in the second half this season.

32:  Longest kickoff return by a Bears opponent this season (Darius Reynaud in Week 9).

10:  Number of interceptions by Tim Jennings since the beginning of the 2011 season, the most in the NFL over that span.

27:  Number of interceptions by the Bears in the 15 games that Chris Conte and Major Wright have been the starting safeties.

14-3:  The Bears record when they lose the coin toss since 2010.  They are 12-12 when they win the coin toss.

4:  Number of Bears defensive linemen (Israel Idonije – 4, Henry Melton – 5, Julius Peppers -6, Corey Wootton – 4) who have at least four sacks this season, the most in the NFL.

10:  Consecutive field goals of 50+ yards made by Robbie Gould, one shy of the NFL record held by Tony Zendejas (1988-1993).

7:  Number of games this season where the Bears defense has forced their opponent to punt at least five times.

125.7:  Average net passing yards per game by the Bears in the seven games Cutler has missed since joining the team in 2009.

2:  Number of United States presidential elections since the last time a Bears quarterback, other than Cutler, threw more than two touchdowns in a game (Kyle Orton – 9/28/08).

This game is going to be all about Jason Campbell.  He will need to get every ounce out of a Bears offense that hasn’t shown much outside of throwing to Brandon Marshall.  The positive is that Alshon Jeffery should be returning after missing the last four games.  The negative is that the Bears always play terrible in San Francisco.  Let’s hope the defense puts some points on the board and makes life easy for the newest “Jay” at QB.

Reading Jaws’ commentary under each pick got annoying, especially when each play it seemed like he was piling on Cutler.  OK, we get it.  Bad mechanics.  Bad decisions. Bad everything.

To spare you from reading the whole article and going through the tedium of the slide show, I did some old fashioned number-crunching of my own.  So I took their analysis and got to crafting some fancy pie charts to see what really went on last season.  Why?  Why not?  It’s the offseason and I’m bored.  So check out my breakdown of their breakdown:

Green Bay leads the way with six of JC’s twenty-six picks, but they did it in two games.  An impressive honorable mention to the Niners, who tallied five picks in a single game.

The talk much of the season was that Jay needed night vision goggles because he seemed to thrown more picks at night.   How about a 50/50 split when all is said and done?  That number is skewed a bit since he threw 9 picks in just two prime time dates.   If nothing else, it seems like he threw picks in bunches under the bright lights.

(more…)

Video courtesy of NFL.com.  All rights reserved. (more…)

Jay is historically bad in the Bears 10-6 loss to the 49ers.

Jay Cutler gift wrapped a W for the San Francisco 49ers by throwing five – yes 5 - interceptions.   In case you wer lucky enough not to witness it because you don’t get the NFL Network, you can relive the lowlights from my live game blog here and for more coverage on the game, check out my post-game wrap here.

If you want to relive an historically bad performance, check out all 5 picks here, here, here, here and here.    Yup – that’s 5 on the night and 17 on the season!  17 freaking picks!  He leads the NFL.  As in worse than Jake Delhomme or Derek Anderson.

Ironically, Kyle Orton was the last Bear to throw 5 picks in a game in his rookie season.  You remember Orton, right?  The guy we traded along with two first round draft picks to get our “franchise quarterback.”  Cutler had more INT’s tonight than Orton has on the season – THE SEASON!

That is beyond Grossman-esque.  It is single-handedly the worst quarterbacking performance that I can ever remember.  That includes Rex Grossman, Craig Krenzel, Jonathan Quinn and the whole bunch that they’ve trotted out of the Bears QB Clown Car.

Of course, the NFL Network had to remind us of our QB impotence by digging up the Micro Machines fast talker guy, rapid-fire pitchman John Moschitta Jr., from whatever crevice he fell into for two decades to rattle off “The List.”  In Chicago, The List is the list of starting QB’s that the Bears have trotted out since Jim McMahon led the Bears to their Super Bowl season back in 1985.

People can try to defend Cutler by saying he has no time because the offensive line sucks or that he has no receivers or whatever other excuses they want to throw out there.  You can say that Hester fell down on one of the picks or that the ref bumped him off on another.  The bottom line is that you cannot throw picks to 300 pound defensive linemen at the goal line.  You cannot throw into triple coverage.  You must protect the ball.  Period.  Bottom line.  End of story.

All that’s left for the 2009 season is to help Bronco fans start planning what to do with a top 10 pick in the 2010 draft and to start looking for the next quarterback to trot out of the Bears QB Clown Car.

He may be on the opposing sideline coaching the 49ers, but this is how I’ll remember Mike Singletary:

BEAR DOWN!!!

Coming off a humiliating home loss to an average Cardinals team,

heading across country,

on a short week,

to face a team coached by a former Bears legend,

in a stadium where historically  they haven’t played well.

But other than that, I like our chances.

Banged up

The battered and bruised Bears secondary hasn’t gotten much good news of late.  Kevin Payne has been ruled out, Al Afalava is questionable  and Charles Tillman is probable, both with shoulders.  On the other side of the ball, Garrett Wolfe is out, recovering from his kidney injury.

Moving Time

The Bears-Vikings game on November 29th has been moved back to a 3:15 game, supposedly to make it available to a wider audience.  Have these TV execs seen the Bears play lately?

Keys

Did you think I forgot the Keys to the Game?  Nope!  I put together a little slideshow here, so check it out.  Yes, pictures for the Niner fans that have trouble with the big words.  And Vernon Davis.

Prediction Time

The Bears seem to win games that we think they have no chance of winning.  They have no business winning this game or any others this season.  Lovie’s players always respond well when the coach is backed into a corner.  Must be a fear of losing out Camp Lovie and the country club camps that he runs.

Bears do well when playing against average to below average QB’s.  Alex Smith falls right into that category.  I expect to get some turnovers and Gore will go off, but only enough to help my fantasy team.  Look for Cutler to go to the air early and often.  If he survives, look for him to key a Bears victory.

Bears 28, Niners 23

BEAR DOWN!!!

Vernon Davis disses Bears defense

49ers tight end Vernon Davis is flapping his gums, claiming to be able to destroy the Bears like Godzilla can destroy Tokyo.  OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but judge for yourself.  This is what Vernon had to say about the Bears front seven in today’s conference call ahead of the Thursday night Bears-Niners matchup:

“I think we can destroy their front,” said Davis, who is one of the 49ers’ team captains. “The guys up front, I think we can destroy them. I don’t see anything spectacular about their front line. Their linebackers, I think we can handle them pretty well. I like (Adewale) Ogunleye. I like the way he’s playing up front. He’s about the only player I like on their defensive line. I think he’s doing a good job.”

So I guess Wale is the only one that can save us!  Easy to take a shot a team after giving up 41 and 45 in two of the last three games.  Pick on someone your own size!

Davis also took a swipe at Lance Briggs, but seemed to start back peddling as soon as the words left his yap: (more…)