Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010
Posted: 4:25 p.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com
If you think the notion of the Bears becoming a running team was just a figment of Lovie Smith's imagination, not so -- it's true. At least for November.
The Bears had 136 rushing attempts and 121 pass plays (attempts plus sacks) for their four November games and were second in the NFL in run ratio, keeping it on the ground 52.9 percent of the time (56.3 of San Diego's plays were runs).
Not coincidentally, the Bears trailed only New Orleans and Green Bay in third-down conversions with first downs picked up on 31 of 59 "money" downs. Defensively, no unit is allowing a lower percentage of conversions than the Bears' 30.6.
The Bears defense is at No. 2 behind only Pittsburgh in the latest Aikman Ratings, the standard the Bears use for measuring defenses because of its inclusion of many different factors. Julius Peppers has 8 sacks and 4 forced fumbles in five career games against the Lions.
The honorable Jay Cutler
NFL
Jay Cutler's four TD passes and 146.2 passer rating in the win over Philadelphia has earned him another nomination as FedEx Air player of the week. Cutler won the award after week one when he completed 23-of-35 passes for 372 yards against Detroit.
In four career games against the Lions, Cutler has completed 66-of-103 passes, posted a 110.1 rating and thrown eight TD passes vs. just one INT.
His teams (Denver, Chicago) are 18-0 when Cutler puts up a passer rating above 100.
Nice
Comcast SportsNet President Jim Corno is being honored with a prestigious "Top Regional Player in Cable Award" at the CableFAX 100 event Dec. 9 in New York. Jim also was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame this year.
Like what Comcast is doing in sports programming, digital and more? It starts at the top. Nice going, Jim.
Yikes I
Things have reached the point in the Motor City where Detroit Free Press writer Dave Birkett is doing a Monday look at where the Lions may or should be looking in next year's draft. The Lions are out of any playoff thought and at 2-9, you can forgive their fans for finding some Saturday games of more interest than the ones on Sunday.
For the draftniks out there, Dave notes that Carolina at 1-10 would pick first in this Wednesday's NFL draft, Detroit would have the No. 2 and Cincinnati, also at 2-9, comes in at No. 3, followed by Buffalo and Dallas.
Yikes II
Colleague Ray Didinger with CSNPhilly.com suggested today that hyped-out Eagles fans should relax and that there is no reason to panic. Good advice, Ray, because if you think Chicago can overreact to a Bears win or loss, consider the radio caller Ray cites:
"I should've known better," the man ranted. "This isn't a Super Bowl team. It isn't even a playoff team."
Well, all righty, then. ...
Stop a second ...
Walking back to my mother's cancer station at Advocate Lutheran Center for Advanced Care today during the Tuesday treatment, I passed a station where a young mother, maybe early 30s, was in the chair receiving her chemo IV. Her daughter, a little cutie probably 5 years old, was holding her hand.
My Mom is 85 and doing pretty well. So I've got a couple prayers I probably won't need for her, and I think I'm going to send 'em down the hall. If you've got one or two you're not using, there's someone somewhere who could use the kind thoughts, healing energy and support. That'd be a sweet Christmas gift that's never too early to give.
John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.